Arya News - At the heart of the model is a simple principle: small, structured support to the poorest farmers — combined with training, accountability and community ownership — can build long-term resilience.
PHNOM PENH – Under the rising February heat in Samrong village, 56-year-old Un At tends a small, rented plot of vegetables, her hands moving quickly between rows of spinach and herbs.
She owns no farmland beyond the house she lives in with her eight children. Each season depends on rented land, uncertain water and fragile crops.
“I rent land from villagers to grow crops, in addition to working another job for wages,” she told The Post.
“The small income from selling vegetables helps support the family and send the children to school. Some of the children work in Phnom Penh, which is better than growing crops. Sometimes in February, crops die because there is not enough water,” she added.
Her story is common across Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Basin, where smallholder farmers face shrinking land sizes, rising temperatures and growing climate shocks.
Yet in villages like hers, a quiet transformation is unfolding — one that has grown from modest household grants into a Cambodia’s large farmer-led association with more than $20 million in revolving capital.
On February 20, Yasmin Siddiqi, country director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for Cambodia, led a media tour to Samrong village in Thma Koul district, where members of the Farmers Livelihood Improvement Association (FLIA) are part of the Tonle Sap Poverty Reduction and Smallholder Development Project.
“We are working with women’s livelihoods groups through the Community Livelihood Fund, which is really providing small amounts of resources,” said Siddiqi
“And we’re talking about very small amounts of financing to support women into what I would call is that first step towards entrepreneurship,” she explained.
At the heart of the model is a simple principle: small, structured support to the poorest farmers — combined with training, accountability and community ownership — can build long-term resilience.
Established in 2017, FLIA now spans seven provinces and 270 communes, integrating 1,906 Livelihood Improvement Groups to become Cambodia’s largest farmer association. PHOTO: THE PHNOM PENH POST
Through the project, IDPoor 1 and IDPoor 2 households receive $240 in three stages, tied to clear milestones.
The first $100 is disbursed after formal group establishment and commune recognition.
Another $80 follows completion of financial literacy training, and the final $60 is released after farmers complete technical agricultural training aligned with their business plans.
Ny Kimsan, deputy head of the Secretariat of the National Committee for Sub-National Democratic Development, said the support is intentionally modest.
“The support given to the poorest of the poor is not a complete life-cycle support, but complementary to their everyday life,” he explained.
“They have small plots of land. They need a few hundred riels to buy agricultural inputs. This support is proportionate to their capacity,” he added.
For women like Un At, that first step matters.
Siddiqi said the programme provides very small amounts of financing to help women take what she described as an initial step toward entrepreneurship.
She added that the support allows them to develop practical skills, learn cultivation techniques and sell fresh produce in local markets.
“Even if the income is modest, it can allow one woman from a low-income background to send her child to school. That is a tremendous result,” said Siddiqi.
Since its establishment in 2017, FLIA has expanded across seven provinces and 270 communes.
Today it integrates 1,906 Livelihood Improvement Groups and stands as Cambodia’s largest farmer association.
The numbers reflect significant progress. Poverty among FLIA member households declined by 39 per cent between 2017 and 2024.
More than 25,000 farmers were trained in climate-smart agriculture through over 1,000 demonstration sites.
Farmers produced 6,749 tonnes of quality rice seed, surpassing targets for certified and registered varieties.
To strengthen market access, 448 Market Improvement Groups were formed with more than 18,000 members, supported by 870 kilometres of rehabilitated or newly constructed rural roads.
An ICT-based Commune Mobile Access programme now provides real-time market information across 270 communes.
But the association’s most striking growth is financial. FLIA’s internal revolving capital increased by 69 per cent, rising from $11.3 million to more than $19 million by late 2025 — and surpassing $20 million including continued growth. The capital belongs to members, not donors.
“This is a community’s own fund. It doesn’t belong to an external agency,” Siddiqi said. “With community ownership, transparency is heightened. There’s a collective sense of responsibility.”
In January 2025, FLIA launched a community-led Livelihood Protection Fund — effectively a micro life insurance scheme designed to prevent debt spirals when a household head dies.
Members contribute about $5 annually and receive around $500 in compensation upon presentation of a death certificate.
By November 2025, nearly 25,000 members had enrolled, pooling over $120,000, with 188 families already compensated.
The payouts allow groups to write off outstanding loans while providing immediate support for funeral costs and basic needs.
Unlike traditional microfinance, which can deepen debt during crises, the fund focuses on risk protection rather than credit expansion.
Climate pressure remains a central challenge. As temperatures rise, delicate vegetable crops suffer, and water storage ponds become lifelines.
Siddiqi noted that future investments will increasingly focus on climate adaptation — including resilient crop varieties and solar-powered irrigation pumps to reduce reliance on diesel.
“Agriculture is likely to be a very fragile area in terms of climate impacts,” she said. “We must build resilience and also look at alternative income sources and skills.”
Yet a deeper transformation may be underway. When asked whether farmers want their children to continue farming, Siddiqi said the answer is often no — a pattern echoed by Un At, whose children seek wage jobs in the capital.
Rather than signalling agricultural decline, Siddiqi sees evolution.
“As people shift into more secure professions, we may see larger farm sizes, more mechanisation and higher value production,” she said. “That can move Cambodia’s agriculture up the value chain.”
Such a shift could attract greater private sector investment in processing, packaging and export markets, especially as production becomes more reliable and climate resilient.
“We see the start of value addition, whether it’s in processing of product, could be juicing, could be canning,” said Siddiqi.
“And that opens up then that export market as well beyond the domestic market and great returns for Cambodia, which we are also seeing through the regional integration of Cambodia as we find transit routes into other countries for agricultural produce,” she added.
She noted that under the ADB’s Planning Directions for 2026, demonstrating clear development impact has become more critical than ever.
To ensure lasting results, she said the ADB is focused on building institutional and community capacity, fostering early collaboration, streamlining processes and promoting a culture of learning and innovation, positioning the bank to deliver transformative and sustainable benefits to the communities it supports.
The association’s institutional evolution has also been shaped by elected leadership across seven provinces.
In Kampong Thom province in 2023, FLIA director Morn Leakena, elected for a three-year term, positioned the organisation as farmer-owned and focused on livelihoods, economic growth and social welfare.
Under its current five-year plan to 2028, FLIA aims to reduce the proportion of IDPoor cardholders among members from 45 to 20 per cent by strengthening savings groups, expanding business opportunities and improving management capacity.
“The goals involve reducing poverty by decreasing current IDPoor cardholders through strengthening savings groups, empowerment initiatives and expanding business opportunities for teams,” Leakena says.