The stress of climate change on water management in Cambodia with a focus on rice production

Abstract

As a least developed country, Cambodia has limited infrastructure to respond to the ongoing and anticipated stress imposed by climate change. This article uses existing publications to examine the potential impact of climate change on water resources and reviews possible adaptation and mitigation strategies, with particular emphasis on rice crop management. The development of agriculture and hydropower is proceeding quickly and it is critical that climate change be considered in such growth. The intensity of storms and severity of droughts appear to be increasing. The infrastructure must adapt for more extreme weather instability. To satisfy the increasing demands for food and to stimulate Cambodia's economy, rice production must increase and irrigation systems must be greatly improved. A more climate-change-resilient option for rice growing includes methods using less water, which result in oxic soils and much less release of methane, contributing less to greenhouse gas emissions. The required changes would be implemented more quickly by the mitigation approach of carbon trading of modified rice culture, which could augment food production, reduce greenhouse gases, and help poor rice farmers make a better living.

Keywords:

• agriculture
• carbon trading
• climate change
• Southeast Asia
• water management

Acknowledgement

This study was completed while K.N.I. was on sabbatical at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. We sincerely appreciate the efforts made by the two anonymous reviewers who greatly improved this paper. We also thank Dr. David Lean for his comments.