Cambodian Agriculture in Transition

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. 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.