France gives $91 million for agriculture, climate fight

THE French government, through the French Development Agency (AFD), has provided two credit agreements worth € 75 million ($91 million) to Cambodia to support sustainable agricultural and rural development, as well as climate change fight in Cambodia.

In a Facebook post on December 21, the French embassy said the agreements were signed by Cambodian Minister of Economy and Finance Aun Pornmoniroth, French ambassador to Cambodia Eva Nguyen Binh and AFD Cambodia director Ophelie Bourhis.

The grants are for the Rural Infrastructure Development for Cambodia (RID4CAM) and Agriculture Value Chain Competitiveness and Safety Enhancement (ACSEP) projects.

The French embassy has confirmed that the RID4CAM project provides for the improvement of basic services for rural people and contributes to connecting remote areas.

The ACSEP project will facilitate the agricultural sector by supporting some potential sectors such as cashew nuts, mangoes and poultry.

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon told The Post on December 22 that the ACSEP project, which has a budget of $30 million, is co-financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

“One project focuses on the construction of rural roads. The other is for the development of some highvalue crops such as cassava, cashew, vegetables and rubber,” he said.

And a $60 million grant will be spent on the RID4CAM project, which is still under the research stage and will focus on vegeculture to boost animal feed production in Cambodia.

“We see that the demand for animal feed in Cambodia is growing. There is [also the need of feed] supply to both fish and livestock feeding in Cambodia, and also focus on high-value farming such as vegetables and other things that is needed in today’s market,” he said.