Statistics:

Weather and Hydrological Conditions

The weather condition as below

The hydrological condition as below

Description

Svay Rieng province is located in the south eastern corner of Cambodia. Geographically, the province juts into neighboring Vietnam. As a result, it shares the majority of its borders with the Vietnamese provinces of Long An (to the south) and Tay Ninh (to the east). It borders Prey Veng province to the west. Approximately 130 km separate the provincial capital Svay Rieng town from Phnom Penh city. The road between Svay Rieng and Phnom Penh has been recently upgraded and it now takes around 3 hours to reach the capital by car, it is a little bit more or less minutes according to the ferry pass and traffics across the Mekong river (Neak Loeung). More interestingly, it now only takes around half an hour from Svay Rieng town to reach Bavet, the major border post with Vietnam. Bavet is one of the special economic zones in the kingdom of Cambodia which there has more investments in textile industry and bicycles factories, these investments could create some work for rural young people, but also affected to their education as well whilst there is no good management in solving these types of work for young people or company workers. Svay Rieng province is divided into 7 districts in the past administration: Chantrea, Kampong Rou, Romdoul, Romeas Haek, Svay Chrum, Svay Rieng and Svay Theab, now according to new policy of administrative amendment of the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC), some areas became the town i.e. Svay Rieng town and Bavet town. These districts are further subdivided into 80 communes/ Sangkats and 690 villages.

The climate is characterized by a rainy season from May to October/November and a dry season from December to April, farmers still keep their existing and long time behavior of doing farming even if there is the climate change is in the hot topic to discuss worldwide i.e. they could not commit to change of seasonal producing time and early variety plant/crops or rice etc. The province’s topography is relatively flat, consisting mainly of a large floodplain. Agriculture is the predominant economic activity, employing the vast majority of the population. The soil is reputedly fertile, but the area is prone to flooding and lacks irrigation infrastructure. Compared to the neighbouring provinces in Vietnam, agriculture in Svay Rieng uses more traditional methods and output is lower. In particular, there is less mechanization, less use of pesticides and fertilizers and farmers do not have access to water for irrigation for the whole year, especially in dry season. Generally speaking, living conditions in rural communities are difficult; farm incomes are low, many areas are without electricity and the road network is often in very poor conditions.
Svay Rieng town is the only sizeable agglomeration in the province. In the past years, a lot of development has taken place in Chantrea district near the border with Vietnam. The gambling industry is flourishing and numerous casinos, destined primarily to Vietnamese clients, have been built. CFAP-Cambodia wishes to see those casinos and industry investors and workers use local produces for example vegetables, meats, some kinds of fruits and fishes from Cambodian side which can push a part of Cambodian economic growth from the bottom up from some potential economical areas of the country.
 

Main issues:

The majority of farmers in Svay Rieng province rely exclusively on rainwater for agricultural production. The lack of irrigation greatly restricts the quantity and diversity of crops that farmers are able to produce. Using rainwater, farmers are limited to 1 crop of rice per year and small scale vegetable cultivation. As a result of this “unproductive” situation, farm incomes are low and farmers have practically no investment capacity. No real market for small farmers/producers which can guarantee their producing activities in a sustainable manner. This is a big concern that farmers should have any intervention and resource assistance to solve their problems, via CFAP-Cambodia we believe that our strategies will bring success for farmers/producers, but mostly need external support whilst the ideas of rural cooperative and membership base which serve the interests of farmers is too young to Cambodian nation and need time to develop the work. Many farmers in Svay Rieng live in isolated areas and have to deal with the lack of a proper road infrastructure, which limits their ability to supply their produce to local markets, road construction is always have problems with quality or bad use of trucks belonging to traders. It is also more difficult for them to obtain good quality seeds, pesticides and fertilizers.
Agriculture in the province is generally not mechanized and farmers employ traditional cultivation techniques which rely on animal power and manual labor. Agricultural work is therefore time-consuming, physically demanding and productivity is low 2-2.5 ton/ha in average.
To conclude, although agriculture is the principal economic activity in the province, agricultural productivity is low (and so are the living conditions of farmers) and the major limiting factor to agricultural development is the lack of irrigation.