Cambodia releases report of first large-scale survey of the agriculture sector since 2013

On 9 February, Cambodia, a 50x2030 partner country, released the Inter-Censal Agriculture Survey 2019 (CIAS 2019) Report, the first large-scale survey of the agriculture sector since the Cambodia Agriculture Census in 2013 and the first national data collection carried out with tablets.

The CIAS 2019 collected information on crop cultivation, livestock and poultry raising, aquaculture and capture fishing. Major findings will feed into the next round of data collection in the 50x2030 integrated agriculture survey. These include:

CIAS 2019 estimated that there were a total of 1,726,000 household agricultural holdings in Cambodia, or approximately 50 percent of all households in the country.
Crop activity was reported on 88 percent of all household agricultural holdings in Cambodia while 75 percent of all household agricultural holdings reported raising livestock, poultry, or insects.
234,000 household agricultural holdings were involved in capture fishing activity, with 63 percent of those holdings reporting their fish catch as lower than previous year, and only 9 percent reporting it as greater than the previous year.
The survey assessed that 31 percent of the household agricultural holdings reported an agricultural income lower than the previous year.

Data collection was conducted between July and November 2019 by more than 400 staff from the Provincial Departments of Planning and Provincial Departments of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. More than16,000 interviews were completed with household and non-household agricultural holdings.

CIAS 2019 data was collected before the global COVID-19 pandemic was declared. It will thus have the potential to serve as a “baseline”, a “pre- COVID-19 agriculture situation snapshot”. This makes it possible to compare CIAS 2019 data with data from subsequent survey rounds and to produce an in-depth assessment of the pandemic impact on the agricultural sector in Cambodia.

Data for the CIAS 2019 was collected through Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) mode, using tablets, making it the first national tablet-based data collection in Cambodia. The report was launched at a workshop organized by the National Institute of Statistics of the Ministry of Planning, in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and with support from 50x2030 program implementing agency, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The CIAS 2019 report and other available resources can be accessed here.

Both the Phnom Penh Post and the Khmer Times covered the event.