The Cambodian government is focused on developing agricultural policies to fuel growth in this sector in-line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution and largely benefit people across the country.
However, to be able to reach these goals, Cambodia needs more human resources in all areas of development.
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Dith Tina recently said that agriculture is a broad sector and human resource training is important and necessary to develop the sector.
He added that he wanted to make the Royal University of Agriculture become a leading university for agriculture in the country and the region.
He said he expected that in the next few years, students from agricultural schools will become more sought after by human resources departments.
He continued that in the years to come, the quality of education will be higher through strengthening English, IT, management and accounting subjects, which are the foundations for students to go on to achieve a high level of leadership education.
“I hope that these will attract outstanding students who want to study at the Royal University of Agriculture, and that we will also work to open the door to welcome students with disabilities,” the minister stated.
“In addition to training and providing students with knowledge, I urge the leadership of the university to think about their sustainability and financial autonomy to ensure the provision of quality education to students to meet the needs of the agricultural sector,” he added.
Ngo Bunthan, rector of the Royal University of Agriculture, said that the agriculture sector can grow and move forward but it will depend on the indispensable participation of all relevant parties, especially human resources in the sector.
He added that today the Royal University of Agriculture has established new cooperation programmes with relevant institutions on resource use projects to improve food security and to grow the agricultural value chain in Cambodia.
The Ministry of Agriculture said that in 2021, the agricultural sector had contributed about 24.4 per cent of GDP to the nation’s economy. In particular, crop production had increased significantly. In 2021, the total rice cultivation nationwide was 3.55 million ha, an increase of 4.41 per cent, when compared to the previous year. The total rice yield was 12.21 million tonnes, an increase of 11.6 per cent when compared to the previous year.
