Abstract
Rice production underpins the national economy and the most rural livelihoods in Cambodia, but it is negatively impacted by repeated droughts. The research reported on in this paper focuses on relationships between drought occurrences in Cambodia’s most drought-prone province (Kampong Speu) and (i) damage to the annual rice harvest between 1994 and 2011, and (ii) the Niño 3.4 index. Droughts were identified using the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI). In seven of the years between 1994 and 2006 droughts damaged >1000 ha of rice in the Kampong Speu province. Furthermore, in 11 years >200 ha of rice were damaged. A critical success index of 0.66 obtained for an analysis of SPI-defined drought and area rice damage in the province indicates a strong statistical relationship. A statistically significant correlation (r = −0.455) was achieved between Niño 3.4 and 12-month SPI values lagged by three months, this indicates the importance of ENSO linkages in explaining drought in this region. Late season droughts lead to greater rice damage than early- and mid-season droughts.
Highlights
Cambodia produced 9.29 million tonnes of rice in 2012
Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) values were calculated for time periods of one, two, three ending in June, August, or November and 12 months for precipitation data for Kampong Speu station (Table 2)
In terms of the mean rainfall pattern, June is early in the wet season, August is the driest month in the wet season, and November is at the end of wet season
Summary
Cambodia produced 9.29 million tonnes of rice in 2012 This generated a rice surplus of 4.73 million tonnes [1]. Annual surpluses of this magnitude should enable the country to achieve its stated aim of exporting 3 million tonnes per year by 2015 [2]. Rice contributes 28 percent of the GDP generated by the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector in Cambodia [3], but production relies on rural households working small farms (national average farm size = 1.4 hectares per household) using traditional practices [4]. 80 percent of Cambodia’s population live in such rural communities, and rely on rice as their major income source as well as their staple food. Rice underpins the national economy and the majority of livelihoods
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