ADB Helps Poor Households in Cambodia's Resource-Rich Tonle Sap Basin

ADB - Asian Development Bank
http://www.adb.org

8 July 2009

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing a $3.45 million technical assistance grant to Cambodia to help diversify and boost the incomes of thousands of marginal farmers, small land holders, and poor householders living in and around the resource-rich Tonle Sap Basin.

The technical assistance will be funded by a $2.7-million grant from the Government of Finland, a $500,000 grant from the Republic of Korea e-Asia and Knowledge Partnership Fund, and a $250,000 grant from ADB. ADB will manage the funds. The Government of Cambodia will provide $200,000 equivalent.

The project will support training programs, demonstrations of modern agricultural practices, and the introduction of communication facilities in remote rural communities to provide access to internet-based agricultural knowledge banks.

Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia and provides an irreplaceable source of livelihood for more than one million people, or a third of the country’s total population. Despite its plentiful resources, the region remains one of the poorest in Cambodia, with almost 40% of its residents living on less than $1.25 a day. A reliance on old, unproductive farming practices and a lack of resources and access to information on modern techniques have left many households eking out a subsistence living.

The technical assistance will be used to support training sessions and demonstrations of high yielding farming techniques in four provinces – Banteay Meanchey, Kampong Cham, Kampong Thom, and Siem Reap. Funds will also be used for a pilot communication project that will establish internet linked e-kiosks and other facilities, providing updated information on modern crop, livestock, and aquaculture production practices, as well as best practices for water management.

"The technical assistance will help diversify and improve the incomes of small land holders, marginal farmers, and poor households in the Tonle Sap Basin by increasing their access to good agricultural practices, technologies, and information,” said Giap Minh Bui, rural development economist in ADB's Southeast Asia Department.

The cofinancing from Finland is coming from the Channel Financing Agreement, a joint technical assistance program between the Government of Finland and ADB. The Republic of Korea e-Asia and Knowledge Partnership Fund, administered by ADB, supports projects that boost knowledge development and information technology in the region.

The project will be carried out from September this year until August 2012 with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries as the executing agency.