US embassy hosts seminar to help develop Cambodian agriculture

Source:Xinhua Published: 2013-12-3 13:32:55

The United States Embassy to Cambodia on Tuesday hosted an agricultural technology seminar to promote the use of technology in order to increase agricultural productivity in Cambodia.

The one-day forum, brought together Cambodian government officials and business people and academics from the US and Cambodia, highlighted the need for increased agricultural output and provided a variety of solutions using US techniques, equipment, and inputs, said a press release.

"The seminar will promote opportunities to increase trade between Cambodia and the United States and at the same time help increase agricultural production in Cambodia," the press release said.

US Ambassador to Cambodia William E. Todd said that Cambodia has seen progress in developing agricultural sector, yet much of the sector's potential remains untapped and a number of obstacles continue to hinder further growth.

"One of the primary constraints to increased productivity stems from the limited use of effective irrigation," he said at the forum. "Cambodian agriculture is still burdened with fragile subsistence rain-fed systems focused on paddy rice production."

He said the lacks of modern technology and limited access to modern agricultural inputs such as seeds, agro-chemicals and fertilizers, created additional challenges to productivity in Cambodia.

Cambodian deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Ly said the seminar was an opportunity to discuss the challenges facing producers and agribusinesses, and possible solutions for the development of Cambodia's agricultural sector.

He said about 80 percent of the population of Cambodia is farmers and agriculture contributed about 36 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2012.

Rice is the most important crop in this Southeast Asian nation, and the country produced 9.31 million tones of paddy rice last year.

The impoverished nation had exported 294,150 tones of milled rice in the first 10 months of this year, a 101 percent rise year- on-year, according to a government report.

Yim Chhay Ly said the country is expected to export 1 million tones of milled rice a year from 2015.

At the conference, American experts from Columbia University, DuPont Pioneer, the world's second largest seed company and the sixth largest supplier of agro-chemicals, John Deere, one of the world's leading manufacturers of agricultural heavy equipment, and Valmont Irrigation Industries had presented agricultural techniques, equipment, and products to Cambodian officials and business people.


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