DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has cultivated 1.93 million hectares of land, only 82 percent of its 2.36 million hectare target, due to a delay in monsoon rains which hampered rice sowing in the country, according to a media release from the Ministry of Agriculture on Sunday.

The report said that drought has been hitting Cambodia for more than five weeks and tens of thousands of hectares of rice seedlings in some 14 out of the 24 cities and provinces have been affected.

To date, the drought has damaged 10,690 hectares of rice seedlings and affected other 135,450 hectares.

Rainy season begins in May and lasts until October. But this year, there is a lack of rain, said Keo Vy, chief of the Cabinet of the National Committee for Disaster Management. "If the rains delay for another one or two weeks, the damage will be bigger," he said.

Cambodia is an agrarian country with more than 80 percent of the population being farmers. This Southeast Asian nation produced some 8.25 million tons of paddy rice last year, said a report of the Ministry of Agriculture.