Page 6 - Agriculture in Cambodia

In 1987 Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People's Armed Forces, the Vietnamese army newspaper) reported a
considerable growth in the raising of draft animals in Cambodia. Between 1979 and 1987, the number of
cattle and water buffalo tripled, raising the total to 2.2 million head in 1987. In the same year, there were 1.3
million hogs and 10 million domestic fowl.

Fisheries

Cambodia's preferred source of protein is freshwater fish, caught mainly from the Tonle Sap and from the
Tonle Sab, the Mekong, and the Basak rivers. Cambodians eat it fresh, salted, smoked, or made into fish
sauce and paste. A fishing program, developed with Western assistance, was very successful in that it more
than quadrupled the output of inland freshwater fish in three years, from 15,000 tons in 1979 to 68,700 tons
in 1982, a peak year. After leveling off, output declined somewhat, dipping to 62,000 tons in 1986. The
1986 total was less than half the prewar figure of some 125,000 tons a year. Saltwater fishing was less
developed, and the output was insignificant—less than 10 percent of the total catch. According to the First
Plan, fisheries were projected to increase their annual output to 130,000 metric tons by 1990.