SBR- Content.pmd - INBO

8 - AgricultureIn Lao PDR, the declining relative importance of agriculturereflects the fact that growth in this sector has lagged behindthat of the economy as a whole. While declining agriculturalproduction per capita caused considerable concern over foodsecurity in the 1990s, rice self-sufficiency was achieved in2000, after several years of stronger growth in the sector. 6However, despite national rice self-sufficiency, there areserious rice shortages for as much as six to eight months peryear in a number of provinces. 7 While agriculture and forestrycomprise a high proportion of employment and GDP in LaoPDR, their contribution to national exports is lower than mightbe expected in a pre-industrial economy because of the largeamounts of hydro-power sold to Viet Nam and Thailand.Between 1995 and 1999, the importance of agriculture tothe Cambodian economy decreased by approximately 15percent (6 percentage points.) However, the sector is likelyto remain the most important in the economy for theforeseeable future. Rice and livestock/fisheries eachcontribute about a third of agricultural output and togethercomprised about 28.5 percent of GDP in 1999. 8 For the sameyear, forestry contributed only 3.9 percent of officiallyrecorded GDP.With growth in the manufacturing andservice sectors, agriculture’s share ofGDP has declinedFor the 1999/2000 crop year, the Cambodian government estimated a rice surplus of 260,710 tonnes.This was approximately 15 percent above national requirements. 9 However, there are largediscrepancies in the degree to which individual farmers are able to produce enough to meet theirneeds and in their ability to buy food to compensate for shortfalls on the market. Some provinceshave chronic shortages, despite national sufficiency. 10 Furthermore, the overall margin of surplus iscomparatively thin and the situation could easily go into deficiency if there are floods or drought.Thus, there is an ongoing need to promote food security. 11 With food security a major concern,Cambodia has not exported much rice or other food crops over the past decade. The bulk of exportearnings came from forestry products in the mid-1990s, but the export share of this sector has sinceslipped to around 15 percent because of the growing importance of garment manufacturing, whichmade up the majority of exports in 1999. 12 Almost all of Cambodia’s non-forestry agriculture sectorexports are dry rubber. 13Landlessness forces rural people to migrate to urbanareas to find workIt is also important to note that althoughthe relative contribution of agriculture tothe national economies of the ripariancountries is decreasing, the absolute valuesof agricultural production have beenincreasing. The absolute value ofagricultural output increased by 12 percentbetween 1995 and 1999 in Cambodia, by22 percent in Lao PDR, 10 percent inThailand and 19 percent in Viet Nam. 14The trend is thus not one of contractingagricultural sectors but rather ofagricultural growth lagging behind growthin the manufacturing and services sectors.147