Public-Social-Private Partnerships for Ecologically-Sound Agriculture and Resilient Livelihood in Northern Tonle Sap Basin (PEARL)

The Northern Tonle Sap Basin (NTSB) in the center-west part of Cambodia is home to one of the region's most important agricultural systems, where farmers produce mainly cashew, mango, rice, and vegetables. The area is also severely threatened by climate change disruption as temperatures have steadily increased by a total of 0.8C° since 1950. At the same time, rainfall is becoming less frequent and more turbulent during rainy seasons, which is why the region is facing a dual threat of flooding and drought putting a total of 1.45 million people at risk either directly or indirectly.

The Public-Social-Private Partnerships for Ecologically-Sound Agriculture and Resilient Livelihood (PEARL) project aims to increase the climate resilience of agricultural production in NTSB by employing three components: climate foresight, market incentives, and enabling environment. The local farmers’ capacities to manage climate impacts will be enhanced through an innovative climate-resilient agricultural asset acquisition mechanism, encouraging empowerment and local ownership over climate adaptation efforts. Likewise, the Agriculture and Rural Development Bank of Cambodia will be strengthened to ensure that their agricultural lending capacities are fully developed and ready to engage with the lending needs of the smallholder farmers in this crucial region of Cambodia in the future.