Agriculture: PM calls for ADB aid on irrigation

via Khmer NZ

Friday, 27 August 2010 15:01 Cheang Sokha

Agriculture

PRIME Minister Hun Sen yesterday requested that the Asian Development Bank help Cambodia build more irrigation systems in order to boost the country’s rice exports, a spokesman for the premier said.

Eang Sophalleth said that during a meeting with ADB vice president Lawrence Greenwood at the Council of Ministers yesterday, Hun Sen highlighted the role improved irrigation could play in increasing Cambodia’s rice yield.

“Samdech [Hun Sen] thanks the ADB for their concentration on the agriculture sector,” Eang Sophalleth said. “And the ADB will seek the possibility of finding out what other ways they can assist in this sector.”

According to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Cambodia produced 7.58 million tonnes of unhusked paddy rice during the 2009-10 rice growing season on 2.33 million hectares of farmland. The ministry said that around 3.5 million tonnes of the 2009-10 harvest was expected to be left over for export. The Kingdom’s main rice export destinations are Vietnam and Thailand.