Water Use Conflicts and their Impact on Rice Yield in Takeo Province, Cambodia

This paper aims to provide an overview of the irrigation sector in Cambodia. It attempts to document major problems and conflicts encountered in the irrigation sector in Takeo province and how these problems and conflicts are solved. It also analyzes the factors contributing to rice yield increase, particularly plot size, labor input, material input, and water adequacy. The study reveals that many irrigation schemes in Cambodia are not able to function well due to two main reasons: (1) poor technical design and (2) lack of proper maintenance. Poor technical design results from limited resources provided for irrigation construction and from having multi-purposes for the facility including flood control, transportation, and agricultural activities. Insufficient maintenance, a result of the country's long civil war in combination with lack of both external financial and technical support to the FWUC, has yielded poorly maintained irrigation facilities.