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

The technical assistance will be funded by a 2.7 million USD grant from the Government of Finland, a 500,000 USD grant from the Republic of Korea’s e-Asia and Knowledge Partnership Fund, and a 250,000-USD grant from ADB, which will manage the funds, the Manila-based ADB said in a statement issued on July 8.

The Government of Cambodia will provide the equivalent of 200,000 USD, the statement added.

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

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 percent of its residents living on less than 1.25 USD a day.

The technical assistance will be used to support training sessions and demonstrations of high-yield farming techniques in the four provinces of Banteay Meanchey, Kampong Cham, Kampong Thom, and Siem Reap.

The 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 the best practices for water management.

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./.