Building Back Better: Organic Agriculture for Smallholder Farmers in Northern Cambodia

About the Project

In Cambodia, a $1.79 million grant to Cambodian Agriculture Cooperative Corporation Plc. (CACC) will support smallholder farmers’ recovery from COVID-19 in the most impoverished provinces of the country, by developing value chains and improving food security and nutrition.  

The project will do so by supporting boosting smallholders’ income, the majority of whom are female and members of ethnic minorities, and their business acumen by incentivizing them to switch to an increasingly profitable organic farming model relying on a growing market and supported by an integrated value chain. 

The activities will also focus on providing access to credit via low-interest loans and the establishment of a traceability system and marketing. Finally, there will be a focus on enhancing nutritional outcomes through social and behavioral change communication on nutrition and life skills for women of reproductive age. The project will be implemented over four years 

The investment is justified as following the pandemic the market for organic food, has further grown in response to heightened consumer demands for safe and healthy food. Prices of organic commodities are higher and more stable than traditional commodities, thus creating opportunities for higher margins and steadier sources of income.  

This project is a partnership between the Cambodian Agricultural Cooperative Cooperation Plc. (CACC) and the World Food Programme (WFP). CACC is an innovative Public-Private-Producer Partnership (P4) joint venture that brings together different actors of the organic value chain including private sector companies and 36 independent producer organizations and the Preah Vihear Meanchey Union of Agricultural Cooperative (PMUAC), which together represent a total of 5,462 farmers, 65% of whom are female. CACC aims to empower smallholder farmers to increasingly benefit from greater value chain participation and empower them to evolve from suppliers to entrepreneurs.