Phnom Penh (VNA) – UN Resident Coordinator in Cambodia Vladanka Andreeva said the Agricultural Finance for Inclusive Rural Prosperity (AGRIFIN) programme would use 3 million USD in grant funding to mobilise more than 30 million USD in lending from banks and microfinance institutions to help Cambodian farmers expand production, invest in equipment and increase their incomes.
The programme was signed by the UN and the Cambodian Government on October 25, during the Youth Innovation Forum and Agricultural Cooperative Learning Forum, held as part of the Cambodia Agriculture Forum and Exhibition 2026 (CAFE26) in Phnom Penh, reported The Phnom Penh Post.
Backed by the Joint SDG Fund, the programme aims to address a major barrier facing farmers and rural businesses: limited access to affordable financing.
It will operate across seven provinces and aims to benefit 7,000 farmers, at least half of them women. Women-led businesses are a particular focus, with the programme seeking to improve access to finance and provide practical business support to help women entrepreneurs expand their operations and reach new markets.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has also approved a 72-million-USD financing package to help Cambodia strengthen rural agriculture and increase women's participation in the sector.
The financing comprises a 57-million-USD concessional loan and a 15-million-USD grant, ADB said in a press release on October 26. The Smallholder Resilient Economic Development Sector Project will enhance the resilience of about 200,000 smallholder farmers in disaster-prone communes, it noted.
Investing in smallholder farmers, particularly women, is essential to boosting the rural economy and supporting poor communities that are most vulnerable to extreme weather events, said ADB Country Director for Cambodia Yasmin Siddiqi.
The project will upgrade agricultural infrastructure and services across 186 communes in seven provinces highly vulnerable to natural hazards. It will also modernise irrigation systems to serve an additional 7,000 hectares of farmland and rehabilitate 190 kilometres of access roads to connect farmers with markets, jobs and economic opportunities./.
