The ministries of

Agriculture and Water Resources and Meteorology on Monday encouraged

provincial office heads to increase supplies of emergency water and

funnel more water to irrigation systems as part of an effort to

mitigate the damage to rice crops typically wrought by the "mini dry

season", which lasts from July to September. Kith Seng, director of

planning at the Agriculture Ministry, told the Post that the dry season

had in past years damaged between 30,000 and 60,000 hectares of rice

crops.