Cambodia's poorest families to receive emergency food assistance

October 8, 2008

MANILA, Oct. 8 — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide Cambodia’s poorest families with US$ 35 million in emergency food assistance as they struggle to cope with rising food and fuel prices.

Poor families living around the Tonle Sap Lake, and in Phnom Penh’s urban slums, will receive free rice and other food subsidies. Food will also be provided to poor children attending early childhood learning centers and primary schools.

ADB assistance will foster employment through food-for-work programs, and impoverished farmers will receive seed and fertilizer to boost crop yields.

“ADB’s assistance will help half a million of Cambodia’s poorest people stave off hunger,” said Arjun Goswami, ADB’s Country Director in Cambodia.

Over the past year rice prices in Cambodia have doubled, the price of meat and fish has risen 30 to 50 percent, and farmers have been hit hard by a doubling of fertilizer prices.

Many impoverished families are selling their household assets and taking out high interest loans in order to purchase food, fueling a downward spiral of poverty.

“Cambodian households normally spend 60 percent of their income on food, so rising food prices have had an absolutely devastating effect on the country’s poorest families,” said Mr. Goswami.

One in every three children in Cambodia are undernourished, and the current food crisis is increasing the severity and scope of the country’s child malnutrition problem.

“ADB’s assistance is particularly focused on protecting Cambodia’s children from the ravages of malnutrition, which can impair their physical and mental development and cause a range of health ailments,” said Mr. Goswami.

ADB’s emergency food aid package consists of a US$ 17.5 million grant and an additional US$ 17.5 million loan being provided at concessional rates. The Government of Cambodia will provide a further US$ 5.08 million for the project.

Broadcasters interested in obtaining video interview footage of ADB’s Country Director in Cambodia, Arjun Goswami, along with B-Roll footage, please contact Multimedia Team Leader Jason Rush: jrush@adb.org, mob: +63-920-938-6490. High quality jpeg photos are also available. (PNA)