Administration
Today, the province of Battambang has 13 districts, 96 communes, and 741 villages, covering an area of 11,622 km² with a population of 185.706 families or 955.104 persons.EconomyKnown as the Rice Bowl of Cambodia the province has a strong agricultural economy with a great production of rice. In the 2006 rainy season 2,440.14 km² of rice, were cultivated for production and the average rice yielded 2.2 tons per hectare, with the total output standing at 536,830.80 tons. With the amount reserved for consumption, seeds, animal food, and waste during harvest, there were about 300,000 tons left for sale. The Department of Agriculture in Cambodia has provided quality rice seed varieties like the Romduol and Senpidor strains for farmers to grow on their rice fields as a demonstration and have allocated significant funds towards experimentation in many of the provinces districts.In addition to rice, subsidiary crops were also planted on 98,342 hectares, including some 420 km² of corn, 400 km² of red corn, 180 km² of cassava, 2.42 sq km of sweet potatoes and many other crops including green beans and chilies. There was a total of 501.78 km² of industrial crops with ground nuts, soybean, jute, sugarcane produced. The Province also produces notable quantities of pineapple, sesame, grapefruit, oil palm and saffron.Besides arable farming, local people mainly indulge in livestock breeding, rice seed production, the production of animal fodder, etc while few operate animal breeding farms. Strategies laid out by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery, have intended to aid the transition from the tradition of growing long-term rice varieties to using medium- and short-term varieties and practicing nature-based intensive rice farming.Battambang Province has 12 fishing lots and commercial fishing exceeded 7,000 tons in 2006 of which 990 tons of rice field fish were caught by local families. The province has 37 fishing communities, each with over 300 members.During this monsoon season, snakeheads and snakehead Murrells are a common target of fishing with a significant increase in stock in recent years due to the Ministry of Agriculture imposed restrictions on illegal fishing to ensure sustainability.
This section overlaps with other sections; it should be combined with the rest of the article.Please post any comments on this issue on the talk page. Battambang is home to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows / SOS Children's Village, an orphanage and home to the Samlaut Multiple Use Area. Samlaut Multiple Use Area is a protected area which, along with other forests and preserves, was declared to be a protected area in 1993 by King Norodom Sihanouk. The multiple use area includes some of the country's richest farmland, but nearly 330 km² is covered by rain forest, home to a wide array of rare vegetation and wildlife.Due to the limited resources of the kingdom Samlaut has received little government management or enforcement. WildAid's Maddox Jolie Pitt Project, (named for the adopted son of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt,) has provided funding for rangers to protect Samlaut's forests. On October 3, 2006, the Cambodian Ministry of Environment and the National Park Service of the United States signed an agreement making the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks sister parks to Samlaut. The agreement facilitates the sharing of experience, skills, technical knowledge, and professional abilities between the two protected areas.