Agriculture & Agro-Processing

CAPRED aims to foster a more sustainable and prosperous agricultural sector in Cambodia by empowering small-scale producers, enhancing market competitiveness, and improving the livelihoods of farming households.

Our work in agriculture and agro-processing focuses on 6 priority crops: rice, cashew, banana, mango, cassava and vegetables. These cover more than 90% of Cambodia’s total cropping area and are dominated by small-scale growers. They offer enormous potential in increased sales and productivity; export growth; import substitution; and gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI) benefits.

We adopt an integrated value chain or market system approach for each crop from market (upstream) to production (downstream). Each market is made up of a series of transactions governed by supply and demand.

We examine market needs and work backwards to improve and strengthen the supply chain.

MARKET SYSTEM APPROACH

Strengthening upstream and downstream sectors

In our model, the upstream sector covers processing, compliance, labelling and/or packaging, marketing and distribution before products go to market. This sector contributes to skilled employment, technical expertise and quality standards. Strengthening this sector can increase value addition, competitiveness and market access that in turn contributes to employment, economic growth, production and crop diversification.

The downstream sector covers primary agricultural production activities. These include research and development of better farming techniques or machinery, climate- or pest-resilient seeds, sustainable practices, improved irrigation systems, farming and harvesting crops, and enhanced post-harvest handling and storage facilities. Strengthening the downstream sector has a positive ripple effect on the entire supply chain.

For Cambodia, the key challenge is to grow its value addition sector rather than sell raw produce to Thailand and Vietnam who then benefit from processing it themselves. Value addition requires a significant improvement in processing efficiency, affordable processing equipment, and use of wastage, ensuring that farming households receive better prices for their products and can rely on stable market access.

Our Approach

  • Drive inclusive growth in the agricultural sector
  • Fully integrate climate change adaptation and mitigation into all agricultural support
  • Use the private sector business model, supporting linkages with growers and collectors as well as rural improvement
  • Learn and collect market intelligence
  • Complement and collaborate with strategic partners

Latest resources

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Did you know? Laser land levelling can help rice farmers boost yields and earn more income. Australia has collaborated with private companies in Cambodia to introduce laser land levelling. This technology helps farmers improve input efficiency, mitigate pest risks and increase rice quality and yield. Mr Ho Sokhy, a farmer from Banteay Meanchey province, decided to adopt laser land levelling after witnessing his uncle’s increased yields as a result. Using this technology, Mr Sokhy was able to save time and costs of water pumping, while increasing his rice yield from 1.5 to 6 tonnes per hectare. Australia through the CAPRED program is accelerating the adoption of technology to enhance Cambodia’s rice industry and support the country’s goal to export one million tonnes of milled rice by 2025.

Australia Supports Cambodia's Renewable Energy Ambitions Australia is committed to supporting Cambodia’s clean energy transition. We both share similar renewable energy targets, challenges and opportunities, so there’s a lot we can learn from each other. This year, Australia hosted a Cambodian delegation of energy officials to learn about the progress and challenges in Australia’s clean energy transition. Check out the video to learn about Ms. Sienghong Chhuong, a SCADA System Officer at Electricité du Cambodge, and her experience in Australia.

CAPRED: Highlights 2023-24

The Cambodia Australia Partnership for Resilient Economic Development (CAPRED) is Australia’s flagship economic development program in Cambodia. CAPRED’s goal is to help Cambodia achieve resilient, inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Australia through CAPRED works with stakeholders across the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC), the private sector and development partners to achieve outcomes. In its second full year of implementation (1 July 2023-30 June 2024), CAPRED had significant successes across the cross-cutting themes (Policy Hub; Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI); and Climate Resilience) and technical domains (Agriculture and Agro-Processing; Trade, Investment and Enterprise Development; and Infrastructure Development).

Australia Accelerates Technology for Cambodia’s Ri...

Australia Supports Cambodia's Renewable Energy Amb...

CAPRED: Highlights 2023-24

Latest news & stories

Read our latest news & stories to find out more about CAPRED’s interventions.

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Agriculture and Agro-Processing

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