The Council of Ministers on Friday agreed to launch an international appeal for 250,000 tons of rice in anticipation of massive crop failures this year.
Council spokesman Khieu Thavika confirmed Saturday that ministers had agreed to make the appeal to the international community and private donors after discussing the outlook for Cambodian rice farmers. Rice crops are facing an extended dry season and damaging infestations of insects.
“In the meeting, we focused on how to push for cultivation, especially in the month of August, and secondly, appealed to the international community for food assistance for this year,” Khieu Thavika said.
“There has been and will be a big food shortage of around 250,000 tons of rice because of the drought, insect outbreaks currently sweeping [the country] and possible flooding in the future,” he said.
Cambodia typically produces about 2 million tons of rice a year, according to rice experts.
Two months ago, an outbreak of army worms damaged rice crops in southern Cambodia and last month, an outbreak of “brown planthoppers” began devastating crops in Takeo provinces, spreading into Kandal province last week.
In addition, a delay in the onset of the rainy season has led some agronomists to fear rice crop failures due to drought, followed by delayed flooding.
But Ken Noah Davies, acting country director of the World Food Program, said it was premature to tell if the potential crop problems merited such a large-scale appeal.
“It’s too early to say. It’s prudent to look forward, but it’s not yet possible to say we have a problem. However, an appeal takes time and it could take some months,” Davies said.
“Everybody last year was afraid of the same thing, and the rains did come and then they were steady, and by the end we were talking about flood problems. But we are aware that by September there may be serious problems.”
Khieu Thavika said the Council also discussed measures to prevent the possibility of late flooding. He said officials ordered the Agriculture Ministry’s Hydrology and Meteorology Department to issue daily weather forecasts to farmers.
The Council also suggested forming a new ministry for the management of water resources that would concentrate on agricultural irrigation.
Dr Nguon Sokhon, deputy secretary-general of the Cambodian Red Cross, welcomed the Cabinet’s concern about potential rice shortages. Red Cross staff are in the provinces to assess the problem, he said, and will meet with WFP personnel to discuss providing rice to stricken areas.
Davies said the WFP would have results from its own study in about two weeks.
Gary Jahn, a crop protection specialist with the Cambodia-Australia International Rice Research Institute project, said 1998 will be worse than usual for rice production.
Jahn said the scale of the government’s proposed appeal is large, but agreed it was not surprising the government would “err on the side of caution.”
(Additional reporting by Rachel Watson and Catherine Philp)
