Nearly 2.5 million tonnes of rice was harvested in the dry season as of March 22 this year, from more than 510,000ha out of Cambodia’s total of more than 680,000ha of rice fields that could potentially be cultivated, according to an April 18 report from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

The report states that there are 681,847ha of rice fields across the capital and 24 provinces. The total area that was harvested was 510,140ha, yielding a total of 2,420,703 tonnes of rice, or 74.82 per cent of the Kingdom’s estimated potential maximum output, giving an average of 4,745 tonnes of rice harvested per one hectare under cultivation.

“Prey Veng is ranked first among provinces for dry season rice. It has 119,369ha total in rice fields, of which 105,418ha were under cultivation and yielded 512,528 tonnes of rice. It is followed by Takeo province, which is ranked second with a harvest of 420,868 tonnes of rice,” the report said.

The report also noted that Kep province harvested the least amount of dry season rice as it only has 32ha of rice fields and only 19ha were under cultivation, which yielded 19 tonnes of rice total.

And there are five provinces that did not have data on dry season rice due to a lack of activity: Koh Kong, Preah Vihear, Rattanakkiri, Preah Sihanouk and Stung Treng.

“The area of dry season paddy cultivation in 2022 was 638,871ha, or an additional 42,976ha compared to the same period this year. There were 467,251ha farmed last year, or 42,889ha more than this year,” said the report.

The six provinces around the Tonle Sap Lake – Banteay Meanchey, Kampong Thom, Siem Reap, Battambang, Pursat and Kampong Chhnang – planted a total of 292,646ha of dry season rice and harvested 987,958 tonnes of rice from 202,198ha, it added.

Bun Lenghak, chief of the ministry’s Statistics bureau, said that Kampong Thom had the highest yield compared to the other five provinces around the lake, with 352,500 tonnes of dry season rice from 65,994ha.

Khun Sa Em, a seed producer and farmer in Prey Veng province’s Ba Phnom district, told The Post on April 18 that this year’s dry season rice farming by his cooperative was more favourable than in previous years, with higher production.

Sa Em, who is also head of the Ba Phnom Meanchey Cooperative in Prey Veng province, said this yield was due to the farmers’ good selection of rice varieties, which are chosen with support from the ministry.He also pointed to the ministry’s support of contract farming as another factor.

“We use rice varieties that have clear sources and recognition as high quality and that is why we get high yields without problems like crop diseases. Our farmers are happy with this output given the high selling prices,” he said.

According to Sa Em, his cooperative could on average cultivate dry season rice of seven tonnes per hectare, which is higher than previous years, where it was more common to get less than five tonnes per hectare. And since March, his co-op has harvested nearly 100 tonnes of rice.