PHNOM PENH (XINHUA) – Irrigation systems have covered some 61 per cent of the total farmland in Cambodia, secretary of state for the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology (MWRM) Bun Hean said yesterday.
“So far, the MWRM has developed irrigation systems that are capable of irrigating 1,889,112 hectares, or 61.37 per cent of the total farmland of 3,078,220 hectares across the country,” he said in a press conference.
Cambodia has spent USD165 million in the last five years in rehabilitating and developing irrigation systems, Hean said, adding that key development partners in the kingdom’s irrigation projects are China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and France as well as the Asian Development Bank.
As an agrarian country, rehabilitating and developing irrigation systems are essential to support and expand the country’s agricultural development, the official said.
Cambodia has a population of 16 million, with roughly 75 per cent of them living in rural areas, while agriculture created 3.12 million jobs, or 35.5 per cent of the total employment, and contributed 24.4 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product in 2021, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).
Rice is the main crop in the Southeast Asian nation, where some 12.2 million tonnes of paddy rice were produced in 2021, an increase of 11.6 per cent year-on-year, the MAFF said.
