Cambodia is one third of Thailand. The total area is 181,035 km2 and is located between 1020-1080 E and 100 – 150 N. The Population of Cambodia is about 13 million. Cambodia has a tropical climate. The rainy season starts in mid April and continue to October. Average annual rainfall is about 1,800-3,000 mm. the mean temperature is about 230-320 C.

     Agriculture is the fundamental sector of Cambodian economy. Small farmers dominate the agricultural sector of the country. Most of farmers are still poor. They earn money less than 1US$ a day. They have many constraints in production activities and marketing. Rice is the most important crop production in Cambodia. More than 85% of cultivating area is planted to rice. Maize, mungbean, soybean, sesame, peanut and cassava are less important crops in the country. Cassava planted area is about 20,000 hectares. The main areas of cassava are in the provinces such as Kampong Cham, Siem Reap, Kampong Speu, Kampong Thom and Battambang. The yield and production are high especially near Thailand border. There are some Thai cassava varieties in Cambodia such as Rayong 5 and Karsetsart 50. The farmers in Battambang near Thailand border introduced high yielding varieties. Because Cambodia is a new opening country , the industrial market for cassava is narrow. There are small number of starch factory and small animal feed industry. There are no chip drying-yard. Farmers in many provinces have difficult to find the markets. Farmers near border send their product to Thailand or Vietnam.

Cultural practices of cassava
     The farmers in Battambang plant the cassava in rainy season during April and harvest it after 9-12 months according to market requirement. In some area farmers can earn money from selling cassava, so they like to apply intensive cultivation. The farmers rotate cassava with soybean for improving soil fertility after 2 – 3 years of planting cassava. Normally cassava practices are 2 times of land preparation by tractor, 3 times weeding by man for control weed and harvesting by man at harvesting time in dry season.

The Production costs are shown in a table below. The total cost of production around 3,100 baths/rai or 485 US$/ha. The cost of transportation was is high about 25% of the total cost of production.

Constraints and problems for cassava production
     The biggest problem is marketing. Farmers think cassava production is high cost and low prices, difficulties in transportation (Road is not good), a lack of supportation and organization from government, lack of research and extension services. These are needed to be strengthened that the role of cassava can be more important in the near future.