CAMBODIA (10 February)
The harvesting of the country’s main wet rice crop, which accounts for some 80 percent of rice production, has been completed. The second paddy crop (dry season) is presently in the ground with normal rainfall and temperature conditions. The 2003 aggregate paddy output is estimated at a record high, 4.2 million tonnes, some 10 percent higher than the previous year and 8 percent more than the average of the past five years, mainly because of favourable weather conditions. The government is carrying out an irrigation system upgrade through a food safety assistance project financed by the Italian Government and implemented by FAO in key areas. Rice, which accounts for some 84 percent of annual food crop production, is planted in about 90 percent of the cropped area, mainly in the Central Mekong Basin and Delta, and the Tonle Sap Plain.