The Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (Cedac) yesterday urged farmers to take extra care in selecting rice seeds during this year’s harvest season in order to increase yields and profits next year.
In a statement Cedac said that carefully selecting healthy rice seeds of the same family could increase a farmer’s yield by as much as 20 percent. “The rice yield will increase [up to several] hundred kilos per hectare…if we use good seeds,” the organization said. Cedac also said it was imperative to keep the seeds stored in a dry safe place once they have been selected.
For farmers whose crops were destroyed from severe flooding earlier this year selecting seeds has been made impossible. About 10 percent of the country’s rice crop was decimated by the flooding. “Those farmers will have to wait for the government or NGO handouts of seeds,” as they will not be able to select seeds from their ruined crop, said Him Khortieth, communications officer at Cedac.
