ADB lends 60 mln USD to Cambodia for irrigation system rehabilitation

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a 60-million-U.S.-dollar loan to increase agricultural production by rehabilitating, modernizing and climate- proofing irrigation systems in Cambodia's two provinces, its statement said on Tuesday.

"Low agricultural productivity is a serious problem for Cambodian farmers, who depend on poorly maintained irrigation systems to grow rice," Raza Mahmood Farrukh, Water Resources Specialist in ADB's Southeast Asia Regional Department, said in the statement.

"This funding will support the government's efforts to expand irrigated land, manage water resources more efficiently, and make farmers less vulnerable to natural hazards such as floods as a consequence of climate change," he said.

The project will boost the efficiency and climate resilience of irrigation systems in central Kampong Thom province and northwestern Battambang province.

By 2021, the total cultivated area for both the dry and wet seasons in the two provinces will have more than doubled to 29,500 hectares from 13,500 hectares in 2015, and three irrigation systems will have achieved 100 percent irrigation efficiency, the statement said.

The project will run for five years. Endi