A project is underway in Cambodia to boost average fish production in the Southeast Asian country’s rice field fisheries by 50 kilograms per hectare per year.
The “Feed the Future Cambodia Rice Field Fisheries Phase II” project is being implemented by WorldFish through grants provided by USAID and funding from the U.S.-based Feed the Future Initiative.
“Since 2012, USAID fisheries investments have increased the productivity of rice field fisheries and have provided poor, rural households nutritious food,” USAID Cambodia Mission Director Polly Dunford said. “The success of this work will contribute to food security in Cambodia and support the Royal Government of Cambodia’s strategy to develop 1,200 community fish refuges in 75 percent of all communes by 2019.”
In Cambodia, almost all rural households depend on rice field fisheries – the fishing that mainly occurs in and around flooded rice fields during the wet season from May to November – as a nutritious food source, according to WorldFish.
The project seeks to boost rice field fishing production by the equivalent of 100,000 metric tons per year.The project will also strengthen targeted communities’ abilities to adapt to climate change risks.
The project builds on the lessons and the achievements of phase I of the project, also funded by Feed the Future and USAID. Phase I was implemented between 2012 and 2016 and improved 40 CFS, increasing fish catch for households near project sites by 9 percent.
