Innovation for a fruitful harvest
The integration of technology into Cambodia’s agricultural sector is vital to increase the competitiveness and overall performance of the Kingdom’s harvest, but efforts to push for widespread adoption of innovative solutions has been slow to take off, industry experts and stakeholders said at a forum in Phnom Penh on September 27. Panelists at this year’s Asia Agricultural Innovation Summit Series, a program hosted by Winrock International and part of a USAID sustainable farming initiative, discussed ways for Cambodia to benefit from greater technological integration into one of the country’s largest sectors for employment. Ben Amick, regional innovation manager of Winrock, explained that the use of technology is still in its infancy in Cambodia, but that the agricultural sector as a whole has an opportunity to leapfrog outdated techniques to streamline production processes. “By 2050 we will need to double agricultural output worldwide, but there is not much land left to do that, so we need to turn to innovative solutions to address that problem.”
