The World Food Programme (WFP) has begun doling out emergency rice rations in Cambodia's drought-stricken south, but it was still too early to tell the full extent of the emergency, the organization's country director Thomas Keusters said Thursday. The aid effort was put in motion as rural Cambodians struggle through their annual lean period before the rice harvest amidst warnings from provincial agriculture authorities that drought has hit the crop hard. WFP is distributing 1,000 metric tons of rice to 50,000 people in the hardest hit southern provinces, but Thomas Keusters told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone Thursday that it was premature to say to what extent the harvest would ease the hardship in these areas. "I don't know. It is too early to say. Definitely there has been a destruction of the crop, but to what extent we can't say until the crop is in," he said. Last week, provincial authorities in southern Kompong Speu province said their estimates put crop destruction as high as 66 per cent, and the Agriculture Ministry said the average loss across the country would probably reach ten per cent. Keusters said WFP was considering a number of food-for-work programs in these areas if the situation had not eased at the end of the harvest. He said although the crop may be down by as much as 20 percent on last season, it was too early to panic yet. "Bear in mind that although there were loses in some areas, last year overall was the best crop ever," he said. Cambodia has suffered from destructive combinations of drought and floods for the past five seasons, and Keusters said the next step in developing the country would be to examine projects which increase the resilience of areas to poor seasons and vagaries of weather. "Obviously that is the ideal situation, but we cannot solve the problem immediately," he said. WFP began the emergency food aid distribution last week and will have it completed by the end of November, the organization said in a press release. About 85 per cent of Cambodia's population are farmers, with rice being by far the most important staple crop.
