Cambodia on Feb. 4 broke ground for its greatest irrigation waterworks in Battambang province in a bid to increase farming area and crops in one of the country’s main rice-growing provinces.
The project has a total investment capital of 61 million USD extracted from foreign credit and the government’s budget.
Once completed within the next two years, the project will provide production water to all districts within the province through a network of irrigation canals with a total length of 332 kilometres.
Battambang, located some 340 kilometres west of Phnom Penh, now has 260,000 hectares of rice fields with an annual yield hovering at around 700,000 tonnes.
Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony, Prime Minister Hun Sen said developing agricultural irrigation is a major priority for the government.
At present, a large part of the farming area in Cambodia is able to produce only one crop a year due to heavy reliance on rainfall.
The government of Cambodia plans to provide 310 million USD to the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology during 2010-2011 in order to expand irrigation networks in rice-growing provinces.
Cambodia as a whole has around six million hectares of agricultural land, of which 2.5 million hectares are for growing rice. Only 44 percent of its rice-growing areas are watered by irrigation channels.
The country, meanwhile, has set a target of producing eight million tonnes of rice by 2015, which would make it one of the world’s leading rice exporters./.
The project has a total investment capital of 61 million USD extracted from foreign credit and the government’s budget.
Once completed within the next two years, the project will provide production water to all districts within the province through a network of irrigation canals with a total length of 332 kilometres.
Battambang, located some 340 kilometres west of Phnom Penh, now has 260,000 hectares of rice fields with an annual yield hovering at around 700,000 tonnes.
Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony, Prime Minister Hun Sen said developing agricultural irrigation is a major priority for the government.
At present, a large part of the farming area in Cambodia is able to produce only one crop a year due to heavy reliance on rainfall.
The government of Cambodia plans to provide 310 million USD to the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology during 2010-2011 in order to expand irrigation networks in rice-growing provinces.
Cambodia as a whole has around six million hectares of agricultural land, of which 2.5 million hectares are for growing rice. Only 44 percent of its rice-growing areas are watered by irrigation channels.
The country, meanwhile, has set a target of producing eight million tonnes of rice by 2015, which would make it one of the world’s leading rice exporters./.
