Introduction

The project “Promoting the use of solar technologies for agricultural and rural development in Cambodia and Myanmar” is a joint initiative between the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) of the Republic of Korea and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

This project has been designed to build the resilience of smallholder farmers through the promotion and scaling of resilient agricultural practices, solar-powered pumping for irrigation and drinking, as well as the agricultural product market facilities in both Cambodia and Myanmar.

The financing agreement was signed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs of the Republic of Korea and the UNDP in October 2020.

Project Summary

The project will increase smallholder farm productivity and climate resilience by adopting resilient and innovative agricultural practices and technology, capacity development of market actors and extension services officers, and the establishment of technology-enabled market facilities for sharing marketing information and technical know-how.

For Cambodia, approximately 7,000 direct beneficiaries are targeted, including local market agents who will act as the middleman in transacting the agricultural goods, farmer producers who gain from innovative agricultural techniques to enhance productivity, and experienced women entrepreneurs targeted for capacity-building.

The objective of the project is to increase the resilience of the agriculture sector in Cambodia to climate change through a three-pronged intervention: (i) supporting the uptake of resilient agricultural practices, (ii) enhancing the agricultural value chain and (iii) promoting and scaling up the adoption of solar technologies for water pumping and powering market facilities.

Key Expected Outputs

Hence, the project will ensure the following two outputs to be attained:

• Output 1: Increased smallholder farm productivity through the adoption of innovative agricultural technology and an improved value chain: Secured investments will be used  in establishing four market facilities/stores, which  would be an opportnity  to gather local markets agents and connect the underdeveloped producer-buyer linkages. This will further address the issues of missed opportunities of marketability and unorganized distribution channels. Additionally, the targeted farmers and local market agents would be able to exchange agriculture inputs (e.g. resilient seeds), outputs (e.g. produce) and be assisted with innovative agricultural techniques.
• Output 2: Increased adoption and utilization of solar water pumping in the agriculture sector: To unlock the potential of robust solar water pumping (SWP) market in Cambodia, a challenge fund will be made available to promote innovative business models and the design of practical SWP solutions with co-investments. Training current and prospective commercial and community-based operators of SWP-solutions will increase the technical knowledge and functional capacities of SWP operators while promoting its increased adoption. These activities would contribute to an increased number of carefully designed, installed and maintained SWP solutions that improve access to sustainable water resources.

Main Activities

• The program will undertake these main activities:
• Establishment of four solar-equipped market facilities/stores in rural and urban areas
• Raise awareness of farmers about inputs to resilient agricultural production practices,
• Capacity building and training for resilient agricultural techniques,
• Development and application of safety and quality certification of agricultural produce,
• Research and development of prospective innovative SWP solutions,
• A challenge fund with co-investments from private sector for innovative SWP applications,
• Development of technical capacities of local engineers to design, maintain and install SWP systems,
• Dissemination of tailored SWP information to stakeholders and facilitate interactions among them,
• Strengthening capacity of current and new operators of SWP systems,
• Support installation, and operations of SWP systems in 30 vulnerable communities.
   

Contributing Donor

The programme's sole donor is the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affair of the Republic of Korea.