AMBASSADOR MURPHY: (In Khmer.) Please sit down.
I am thrilled to welcome you all here at AmCam Exchange. I am US Ambassador to Cambodia, Patrick Murphy, and I am incredibly honored and excited to have a special guest helping us today with agriculture and food security.
First a quick word about the Kingdom of Cambodia. Agriculture is the backbone of Cambodia’s economy and a really important part of the cultural identity here. It’s a way of life. The sector accounts for more than 20 percent of GDP, directly employs more than 3 million Cambodians and has been an incredible source of resilience during the pandemic. I really want to emphasize that. Many migrant workers had to return unexpectedly. Many people, especially in the tourism sector, lost their jobs. Farmers absorbed and helped carry the kingdom through this pandemic.
As an ambassador I have to do what I can to strengthen relations between our two countries, and that means meeting a lot of farmers and helping them expand trade between our two countries and bring technology, which really helps in this country with efficiency improvements and adding value to their products, and achieving more sustainable development. We are very proud of our U.S. Agency for International Development and our U.S. Department of Agriculture. Both agencies have programs in the areas of food security and, more generally, agriculture. And it has been critical to this resilience and to helping the sector’s economic potential.
Now our special guest from Washington brings a global perspective on food security issues. He has been deeply involved with world leaders and counterparts around the world to address emerging food security challenges. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken. Mr. Secretary. (Applause.)
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good morning everyone, and it’s great to be here with all of you, to see you all here. Patrick, thank you not only for the introduction, but also for your remarkable leadership of this mission every day. And thanks to everyone who joined us here today, especially our wonderful colleagues from USAID in our mission after mission around the world where, as we would say, the rubber really meets the road. It’s through our AID missions. They are doing remarkable work place after place to enable the most powerful connectivity between ourselves and our host countries, including here in Cambodia, by bringing powerful projects to life that make a difference to lives, livelihoods and futures.
So I’m happy to be with our USAID colleagues and our Cambodian partners. I just met some of them, and they are remarkable, dedicated entrepreneurs who are committed not only to their own success, but also to the success of their country. I had the chance to taste some of the remarkable products they produce with help from the United States, and I can tell you first hand that this is good stuff. I happen to be a cashew nut lover. Well, Cambodia is the biggest cashew producer, exporter in the world, and I just tried some really good cashew nuts, beautiful mango products and other things, beautiful vegetables, incredible things that make a difference in lives.
So about 12 years ago, the United States launched an initiative called Cambodia Harvest, and that was part of our flagship global food security program called Feed the Future. The idea behind Feed the Future is that when it comes to chronic food insecurity, food aid is essential, but not enough. We have the know-how to improve agriculture in all climates and income levels, so that countries can continue to produce their own food. It’s the classic example of the old saying about giving someone a fish, feeding him for a day; teach them to fish, feed them for a lifetime. That is what Feed the Future is all about: creating self-sufficiency, creating indigenous production capacity, investing in it, investing in that future.
With the right partnerships, countries become more food-safe. People’s health is improving. Poverty is reduced. The need for food aid itself is declining. Here in Cambodia, our two countries have worked together to increase crop yields, improve livestock health, promote climate resilience, educate farmers and create new markets. And we are seeing strong results. So when I just met some of the individuals behind the numbers, they were kind enough to share some of the work they do, to share with us their cashews, their mangoes. This event is actually a diversion because while we’re doing it, I’ve made sure my team takes the beautiful baskets of products so we can take them back.
But it – in all seriousness, you can see the demonstrable impact of the partnership, and that’s a powerful thing. We often deal with major policy issues that are sometimes abstractions. It is particularly gratifying to see the tangible results of this partnership between the United States and Cambodia.
Through our partnership, Bun Sieng has provided technical support to farmers across the country. We are grateful for that. Holly Mio’s (ph) team used grants for our program to expand the Dry Food Company internationally. And so we see that reverberating all over the world, not just here in Cambodia. Dara An built new cashew processing facilities with a Harvest grant. And Sothea Mao runs a food export and distribution company with our support; she signed a deal to distribute a local company’s fruit in Cambodia and beyond. So congratulations on the remarkable work you are all doing. We are proud to be your partners.
We want to build on these successes. So today we’re announcing the next phase of our partnership, which is called Harvest III. It will be launched next week. It will bring in up to $25 million over the next five years. So what will it do? It will continue to help farmers increase their income, for example by increasing access to tools such as greenhouses, which can help extend growing seasons, improve the quality of what is grown, and help products actually meet market standards. We want to reach more farmers, especially women and young people, to ensure that they too reap the benefits of these investments. And we help connect more Cambodian farmers and businesses with markets at home and abroad.
More than 60 percent of Cambodians live in rural areas. You have heard the ambassador speak about this. More than three quarters of those households depend on agriculture, fishing or forestry as their main source of income. Many of these workers have limited access to markets or funding. We want to change that so that more people can enjoy Cambodian products and more farmers and entrepreneurs can grow their businesses.
In fact, with this new phase we are expanding our scale. The final phase of our program called Harvest II worked in select provinces. Harvest III will be nationwide. Harvest II focused on fruits, vegetables, herbs. Harvest III will add grains, fish and other products. We are nearly tripling the amount available to our partners. We believe in this program. We believe in our partners. And we want to do a lot more good work together.
The needs are urgent. Far too many Cambodians still live in food insecurity. Far too many Cambodian children are malnourished. Being a parent myself, it goes straight to my heart every time I see this. I think any of us who are lucky, when we see a malnourished child, we think, when we have children, we think of our own. We think about our families. And we want to do everything we can to make sure that no child on Earth is malnourished.
This is a humanitarian issue. It’s a health problem. It’s an economic issue. It is also a security concern as widespread hunger makes communities and countries less safe, especially as food insecurity around the world rises as a result of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which has prevented millions of tons of Ukrainian crops from being shipped to the world. markets. It is vital that we strengthen global food security and tackle the root causes of hunger, malnutrition and poverty. That’s what the United States and our partners have done in Cambodia and in more than 40 countries where Feed the Future operates.
So let me say again how grateful we are to all our partners in Cambodia such as our friends Bun, Holly, Sothea, Dara, who work hard every day to produce food, also to grow their business, to support their families , to contribute to their communities, to share Cambodia’s wealth with people across the country, as well as around the world. It is an honor to be part of your journey. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
