Cultivation damaged in 2004
Cultivated areas destroyed by drought are an indicator of risk factors which affects food availability – including stock – and food accessibility of households over the year, especially of the poor and vulnerable. Based on the climate conditions that started from the beginning to the end of the rainy season, there are a number of provinces that were affected by drought, including Kampong Speu, Kandal, Takeo, Prey Veng, and Svay Rieng. In addition, there are some provinces such as Mondulkiri where approximately 77.28% of the total cultivated areas were damaged. Kratie 34.53% (33.08% by drought and 1.46% by flood) Kampong Cham 26.31% (24.70% by drought and 1.12% by flood) and Kampong Speu 21.88%.
Sample map of cultivation areas damaged by drought in wet season 2004.


Cultivation area damaged by fire disaster
Cultivation areas damaged by fire disasters are another indicator of risk factors which affects food availability– including stock – and food accessibility of households over the year. The harvesting activity in some provinces this season came late. On the other hand, a number of cropped areas were damaged by fire from the first to third weeks of January 2005 due to lack of attention to taking care of the farm lands by some farmers. These included:

Banteay Meanchey province (total damaged area: 981 ha) in which Serey Sophoarn district
    (19 ha), Monkul Borey (350 ha), O Chrov (385.5 ha), Svay Chek (10.5 ha), Preah Netpreah
    (24 ha), Phnom Srok (190 ha), and Thmor Pouk (2 ha) were affected.

Battambang province (462 ha): Thmor Kol district (162 ha) and Bo Vel district (300 ha).

Kampong Cham (66 ha): Ponhear Krek (47.9 ha), O Rang Ov (16 ha), Steung Trang (2.5
    ha),

Salakrov district Krong Pailin (2 ha).

in Smach Meanchey in Koh Kong province (100 ha).

This disaster has affected the livelihood of farmers particularly the poor who are solely depending on rice production.

The MAFF quickly responded to this disaster and requested all local technical offices and departments to cooperate closely with the local authorities to protect this risk very effectively.
Sample map of cultivation area damaged by fire disaster.


Rice Balance Sheet in 2004-2005
Normally, food balance is the proportion of total production of milled rice received (deducted 13% for losing and seed) to the total population in each province. The provisional statistics of the MAFF indicate that there are 11 provinces that faced rice deficits. These include Kampong Cham, Kampong Speu, Kandal, Kratie, Koh Kong, Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri, Krong Preah Sihanuk, Krong Kep, Krong Pailin, and Phnom Penh municipality. It is estimated that at the national level there are 463000 tons of milled rice surplus. However, at the community level faced with severe drought, people are experiencing rice deficits particularly among very poor farm households.
Sample map of Provinces facing food insecurity.


Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) image, derived by the VEGETATION Instrument on board the SPOT satellite, clearly shows the damaged crop condition. Monthly NDVI for December 2004 was compared with the average image (1998-2003) pixel by pixel to generate a "different image"

Areas in red colour indicate regions with lower than normal rainfall or suffering from low crop production. This satellite image explains very well the spatial extent of the damaged areas or drought condition as well as highly affected areas such as Kampong Speu, Mondul Kiri and Kratie provinces. NDVI imagery is being provided by the FAO Advanced Real-Time Environmental Monitoring Information System (ARTEMIS) to FAO Asia FIVIMS project activities including monitoring and assessment of drought by the Cambodia FIVIMS.

NDVI image for December 2004 showing drought affected areas (red) – source: FAO ARTEMIS