Overview

Approximately 80 percent of Cambodia’s population lives in rural areas and 71 percent depend primarily on agriculture (largely rice) and livestock for their livelihoods.

Poverty in Cambodia is overwhelmingly rural, with poverty headcounts ranging from a low of 10-15 percent in Phnom Penh to 40-45 percent in the rural areas, reaching 70-80 percent in some areas around the Tonle Basin.The poorest are particularly dependent on access to common property resources - fisheries and forestry - for example, eating and selling fish, eating mushrooms, and selling logs.

Agricultural growth had shown steady improvement (although highly variable) averaging 2 percent annually over the decade prior to 2005, when the sector had unusually high growth of 16 percent. With workers in the sector also growing, sector value added on a per worker level was lower, achieving 19 percent growth over this same period.

However, agricultural production and general rural economic growth remain far below their potential because of low productivity, high vulnerability to weather, constrained access to land, forests, fisheries and markets, and lack of adequate infrastructure (such as roads, water supply, electricity and communications networks).

Given the large rural population and high potential for improvement, the government has highlighted promotion of agricultural development as the primary strategy for achieving higher growth and poverty reduction.