This report seeks to understand the successes, challenges and opportunities of Cambodia’s agricultural transformation over the past decade to derive lessons and insights on how to maintain future agricultural growth, and particularly on the government’s role in facilitating it.
... See More + It is prepared per the request of the Supreme National Economic Council and the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries and is based on the primary farm data surveys from 2005 and 2013, and the secondary data from various sources. In 2013-2014, the agricultural growth slowed down to 1 percent from its average of 5.3 percent over 2004-2012. Is the country in transition to a slower agricultural growth? Cambodia can ill afford it because agricultural growth will be critical to continued poverty reduction in the country, given its large size in the economy. Market and private investment friendly policies and targeted public sector investments in irrigation, extension, and other ‘public good’ agricultural services, as feasible within the government’s total budget, can help secure continued robust agricultural growth. The remaining report is organized as follows. Chapter two presents key facts about Cambodia’s recent agricultural development using data from national accounts and various reports. Chapter three provides evidence from the field that explains the changes observed in the national accounts. Chapter four illustrates developments in farming systems, farm budgets, and farm incomes compared to nonfarm incomes. Chapter five presents a farm competitiveness analysis. Chapter six discusses the sources of past growth and their limitations and presents an analysis of (likely) future sources of agricultural growth. Chapter seven presents a long-term vision for the sector, while chapter eight simulates policies and the changes in farm incomes needed to realize this vision. Chapter nine discusses the policy agenda, with implementation details based on national and global experiences. Chapter ten concludes with a summary of the report and policy recommendations. Annexes present the methodology of the 2013 farm survey, detailed farm budgets by crop, projections of selected indicators, and results of the policy simulations.
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The use of quality seed is a major component of increased yields in crop production. Quality seed and seed programs in a country does not emerge by happenstance; it is created by a combination of many factors that include variety development, seed production, quality control, processing, marketing, and governmental oversight.
... See More + As the seed sector in a country matures, each of these factors becomes more important and plays a more important role in the growth of the agricultural sector. The seed program in Cambodia is interestingly different from that in many other developing countries. Even without a true seed program in Cambodia, farmers understand the need to plant quality seed to increase crop yields. When structuring this growing seed industry, it is important to look at current practices and to incorporate these practices into programs. Since a major thrust of the seed program in Cambodia involves rice, it is important to consider its role in the average Cambodian’s life. Cambodia’s climate must also be accounted for in any decisions regarding seed. Its heat and humidity causes rapid deterioration of seed viability and germination in rice and other seeds in both the growth and storage phases. CARDI research has shown that the level of rice germination falls below 80-85 percent within 6-8 months after harvest; this means that seed must be planted during the growing season following harvest. Therefore, any seed produced beyond immediate planting needs for the next crop is used for milling; seed production costs for that seed cannot be recouped. When seed producers’ budgets are constrained, they often plan their seed production based on conservative seed sales estimates.
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This report focuses on areas with highest potential efficiency gains to increase the value for money from investments in core public goods and services such as extension, irrigation and rural roads.
... See More + This is a first attempt to carry out such an analysis in Cambodia, and even in the Greater Mekong sub-region. Based on extensive data gathering and surveys, this chapter analyzes the efficiency and effectiveness of agricultural sector expenditures in Cambodia and assesses various options for increasing the impact of government expenditures on agricultural growth. Other challenges include an excessive focus on rehabilitating primary irrigation infrastructure and a neglect of secondary and tertiary systems, a lack of maintenance of irrigation and rural roads, and the slow pace of developing or adopting new technologies to reduce future maintenance costs. There is also a need to better prioritize agricultural and related infrastructure expenditures, both by type and by geographic location, to maximize their impact on growth. The rest of the report is organized as follows. Chapter two presents recent developments in the agriculture sector of Cambodia. Chapter three gives an overview of sectoral expenditure trends over the last decade. The budget process and its relationship to sectoral development strategies is discussed in chapter three. Chapter four discusses the novel contribution of the AgPER in analyzing the efficiency and effectiveness of government spending using benefit-cost analysis to examine select public investments. Chapter five discusses how likely climate change trends may affect future agriculture expenditures and suggests some priority areas for public spending. The conclusion section summarizes the major findings and policy recommendations of the report.
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Agriculture has been a mainstay of the Cambodian economy. It has seen significant growth throughout the 2000s and showed a significant resilience against external shocks during the 2008-09 economic and financial crises.
... See More + Agribusiness enterprises do not operate in isolation from the rest of the economy. The state of production of agricultural raw materials, the state of the financial sector, and the nature of the financial sector's engagement with the real sector activities, as well as broader issues that affect private sector development all impact the development of the agribusiness sector. The current study seeks to analyze some of these linkages. It focuses specifically on the role the financial sector has played in the growth and development of the agribusiness sector. The study builds on the existing analytical work on agricultural and small and medium enterprise (SME) finance in Cambodia. The study was carried out in three major phases. The first phase was to determine a methodology to gather new information on linkages between agribusinesses and financial institutions. The second phase involved a survey of financial institutions (banks, microfinance institutions, and insurance companies) and 1,011 agribusinesses in Cambodia. The third phase emphasized analyzing the data and compiling a report that highlighted the key findings for the target audience. The report provides the broader context of the sector issues related to access to finance by agribusinesses, and review the available analytical work.
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