United States Awards $56 Million To Improve Cambodian Food Security

Phnom Penh 10 January 2011 -- US Embassy Press Release

The United States Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has awarded a five-year, US$56 million contract designed to improve food security through enhanced agricultural development and rational management of natural resources.  The five-year, $56 million contract was awarded to Fintrac Inc., a highly respected U.S.-based agribusiness consulting firm that develops agricultural solutions to end hunger and poverty. 

This U.S. Government award will now serve as USAID’s flagship food security activity in Cambodia, Helping Address Rural Vulnerabilities and Ecosystem STability (HARVEST) Project, will work with public, private and civil society to strengthen food security by increasing agricultural productivity; raising the incomes of the rural poor; preparing the country to adapt to climate change; and reducing the number of Cambodians, especially women and children, suffering from malnutrition.

HARVEST is supported by Feed the Future (FtF), a U.S. Presidential Initiative for food security, as well as other U.S. Government priority initiatives, including global health and climate change.  Cambodia is one of twenty priority countries receiving FtF support, and the only country in Southeast Asia.

U.S. Government Feed the Future investments will address key determinants of food security:

• investments in agricultural productivity, agribusiness and market development, and equitable distribution of and control over productive resources
• a multifaceted approach to nutrition
• a long term perspective to foster permanent solutions to chronic food insecurity

Investments will build on existing successes, U.S. and Cambodian expertise and strengths, and be concentrated in strategic areas based on U.S. and Cambodian comparative advantage.  They will be designed in close coordination with the Royal Government of Cambodia and with other development partners in order to maximize the collective impact on sustainably reducing hunger and poverty.

A “focus on food” approach to rural income diversification and value-chain strengthening will help the Cambodian agricultural sector to become a major contributor to stable and sustainable economic growth for Cambodia and the region.  Improved land and other resources management will conserve and maintain the economic value of Cambodia’s sensitive ecosystems and rich biodiversity as well as reduce the vulnerability of agriculture and rural communities to climate change.  Permanently reducing hunger and maintaining sustainable use of natural or communal resources are the central goals of HARVEST; goals that will effectively tackle two of the worst aspects of poverty.