Some quick stats

Hi All

Just a quick post on some interesting statistics that were compiled by the WFP Cambodia Food Security Atlas. It helps to put into focus for me some of the work that we are doing and hopefully you will find it interesting. A common reaction of visitors to Cambodia are that things are going very well and the pace of development is fast. The report highlights the vast rural-urban gap that isn’t hard to see when you leave the big cities.

The overall Cambodian economy is going gangbusters expected to reach 10.4% this year. Cambodia has quadrupled the size of its economy since 1994. The rub is that growth in the agricultural sector was only 3.1% (less than population growth which means people in the agricultural sector are treading water or going backwards mostly).

A farmer (90% of Cambodians are dependent on agriculture) makes about US$100 to $US200 a year from a hectare of land and most families own 1.5 or less hectares (45% live of .5 Ha, although more than 60% in Kampong Speu).

The province I work in received the lowest annual rainfall in the country at 800mm (which is still more than most of Australia receive – but that said Australia has sophisticated ways of utilizing and storing rainwater as well as not relying on such thirsty crops such as rice which must be flooded to grow).

The average yield of a farmer here is approximately 2.47 tonnes of paddy rice/Ha. This is among the lowest in Asia, beaten by Philippines, Laos, Vietnam, China, Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia.

High costs of fertilizer have led to lack of use and depleted soil. Farmers in Laos and Thailand use 3 times as much as Cambodian farmers; in Vietnam they use 6 times as much. Only 10% of land is artificially irrigated.

Infant Mortality Rate remains high in rural areas (92 per thousand live births in rural areas compared to 65 in urban areas) as does Under 5 mortality (111 per thousand in rural areas compared to 76 in urban areas).