FAO backs Cambodian farmers

The Food and Agriculture Organization is using its SCALA programme in Cambodia to steer farmers toward climate funding and adaptation support, not just policy plans. (fao.org) SCALA stands for Scaling up Climate Ambition on Land Use and Agriculture. The Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations Development Programme run it from 2021 to 2028 with €26 million from Germany’s International Climate Initiative across 23 countries. (fao.org) In Cambodia, the programme says it is building evidence for climate action in agrifood systems, improving land-use and emissions data, and laying the groundwork for climate investment in farming. A Food and Agriculture Organization video page published on October 2, 2025, describes that work as “translating policy into action.” (fao.org) The pressure is large because agriculture and land use account for 39 percent of Cambodia’s total greenhouse gas emissions, according to the programme’s Cambodia page. That same page says Cambodia began a National Adaptation Plan financing framework in 2017 and is preparing evidence for its Nationally Determined Contribution 3.0 roadmap for 2025. (fao.org) The investment push has moved beyond general advice into named sectors and workshops. From April 2 to 4, 2024, in Phnom Penh, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries held a foresight workshop backed by the Green Climate Fund on sustainable crops, climate-resilient livestock, and forest restoration. (cambodia.un.org) That work continued on August 13 and 14, 2025, when the same ministries, the Food and Agriculture Organization, development partners, and financial institutions met in Phnom Penh to discuss investment prospects in low-emission rice, climate-resilient aquaculture, fisheries, livestock, and forest and landscape restoration. (fao.org) Cambodia’s SCALA work also includes technical preparation inside government. In October 2024, 25 government representatives were trained to use the NEXT tool to align climate mitigation scenarios in agriculture, forestry, and land use, according to the programme’s country page. (fao.org) A workshop report says SCALA in Cambodia is meant to remove barriers that block climate action, including information gaps, governance problems, financing constraints, gender mainstreaming, and weak monitoring and reporting. The report describes Cambodia as one of more than 20 countries in the programme. (openknowledge.fao.org) The Food and Agriculture Organization’s recent video briefings package that work into short, public-facing updates. One video page posted on October 28, 2025, is titled “3 ways FAO is helping bring climate investment to Cambodia,” while another page highlights “SCALA insights in Cambodia.” (fao.org) The immediate test is whether those plans turn into funded projects that reach farms and forests in the provinces Cambodia has prioritized. For now, the Food and Agriculture Organization is presenting Cambodia as a case where climate policy, investment planning, and farmer support are being tied together in one pipeline. (fao.org)