CAMBODIA:  Seasonal Flooding Impacts Wet Season Rice Production in 2013

Heavy monsoon rainfall which blanketed much of the northern Mekong River watershed in Vietnam and Laos during September and October 2013 caused substantial downstream flooding in Cambodia. Current flood conditions are reminiscent of the epic levels reached in 2011, with large areas of productive rice lands innundated during the summer growing season. Cultivated rice areas stretching from the province of Siem Reap in the northwest to Prey Veng and Takeo in the south have been negatively affected, with an estimated 369,346 hectares or 12 percent of total rice area experiencing flood conditions. USDA conducted a special satellite-based flood assessment analysis in November to more clearly illustrate where flooding was directly impacting rice crops across the country, resulting in the map below. As can be seen, the location and intensity of flooding is similar to 2011 when a record 415,000 hectares was innundated.

Rice is the overwhelmingly predominant food crop in Cambodia, being grown on an estimated 3.1 million hectares or nearly 85 percent of the country’s total cultivated area. The country has distinct wet and dry seasons, with the majority of the national crop being cultivated during the summer monsoon or wet season. Both drought and floods are common occurrences, with drought typically having the greater negative impact on national production. The rice growing region itself surrounds the nation’s major water bodies, those being Lake Tonle Sap and the southern Mekong and Tonle Sap Rivers.

Rice is intensively cultivated year-round, with 3 crops grown in the wet season, and 1 in the dry season. As can be seen by the graphic above, the flooding which occurred in October 2013 coincided with the main vegetative (tillering) and early reproductive (heading) growth stages of the medium and long-season rice crops during the summer wet season. Harvest activities for these crops would not have generally commenced until November or December in most areas, and as such there was adequate time for many of the inundated crops to recover when floodwaters receded. The Cambodian government reported that of the total 369,346 hectares of rice which were flooded recently, only 113,260 hectares were expected to be completely lost.

Roughly 81 percent of national rice production occurs in the wet season (86 percent of total rice area), with 19 percent produced in the predominantly irrigated dry winter period (14 percent of total area). Over the past 10-15 years the area cultivated to rice in both seasons has been gradually expanding, while both crop yield and production have also incrementally increased. This expansionary pattern has led to a series of 8 consecutive years where record rice production has been achieved. In fact, the country achieved record output during 2011 when the last major wet season flood devastated the country. During that event government officials reported that wet season rice area actually declined about 80,000 hectares compared to 2010 owing to flood-related damage. However, farmers compensated by increasing dry season rice acreage by 67,000 hectares, and more than offset the summer production losses owing to much higher irrigated crop yields. Dry season rice yields typically reach over 4.4 tons per hectare, or 35 percent higher than wet season crops.

As of mid-November 2013, 20 provinces have been affected by serious flooding, with the worst damage and crop losses reported in the northwest provinces of Banteay Meanchay, Battambang, and Siem Reap. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently reported that it was providing US$3.0 million to the Cambodian government to assist with its ongoing disaster response efforts, to provide needed rice seed for re-planting and repair irrigation infrastructure and rural roads. The ADB estimated that the floods caused US$1.0 billion in total damage and affected roughly 1.7 million people.

Prior to the current flood event the Cambodian government reported that wet season rice area had reached a new record of 2.56 million hectares. Its estimate of lost rice acreage owing to flood-related damage (113,260 hectares), therefore, equates to only 4 percent of total wet season area. In addition, summer rice yields in areas unaffected by flooding were expected to have benefitted from ample summer rainfall, increasing over levels achieved last year. Despite the flood, the general long-term trend of increasing rice yields is expected to have continued unabated. Lastly, irrigation supplies should be plentiful this year in areas where irrigation infrastructure was not heavily damaged by the floodwaters, and thus rice production prospects following the summer monsoon should be quite favorable. Dry season rice area has been expanding at a rate of nearly 20,000 hectares per year over the last 10 years, and this season should also see that trend continue. As occurred in 2011, farmers in major dry season producing provinces are expected to increase sown area and production to help compensate for losses in the wet season floods. As a result, USDA currently estimates Cambodia’s rice production at a record 4.9 million tons (milled basis), up 0.3 million or 7 percent from last year.

Current USDA area and production estimates for grains and other agricultural commodities are available on IPAD's Agricultural Production page or at PSD Online.