When regions unite for sustainable food: cooperation between the Hauts-de-Seine Department (France) and Siem Reap Province (Cambodia)

From November 18 to 25, 2025, a delegation from the Hauts-de-Seine Departmental Council traveled to Cambodia to meet with their counterparts in Siem Reap Province and visit projects led by Agrisud International and GRET as part of decentralized cooperation, alongside the Agence française de développement (AFD). 

This mission illustrates the relevance of territorial partnerships in addressing the food and climate challenges of yesterday and today. 

Long-term cooperation 

For more than ten years, this cooperation has been based on a clear objective: to professionalize family farms in order to ensure food security and strengthen the resilience of local areas. 

Two operators are working together: Agrisud and Gret, with structural projects. 

For Agrisud, this is the IADA project, Agro-ecological Intensification and Agricultural Diversification. Funded by the Hauts-de-Seine Departmental Council and the Agence française de développement, it is mobilizing €3.75 million over nine years to support 2,470 family farms in 13 municipalities.  

Its objectives include: 

• Strengthening agro-ecological production, 
• Diversifying crops, 
• Structuring local marketing channels. 

Beyond the beneficiary families, 30 socio-professional organizations, 85 master farmers, and provincial services are involved, with an indirect impact on thousands of Khmer consumers and tourists.

Since June 2025, the signing of the TETARD* project has marked a further step forward: the planning of a regionalized food supply system. 

Shared challenges: healthy and sustainable food 

In Siem Reap, the delegation met with Governor PRAK Sophoan and held discussions with Deputy Governor ING Kim Lieng and members of the regional platform for sustainable food.  

Together, they worked on ways to ensure healthy and accessible food while supporting local producers. 

This issue echoes the priorities of the Hauts-de-Seine Departmental Council in its own territory: promoting sustainable food for its residents. 

Concrete actions at the heart of communities 

This cooperation is not limited to institutional exchanges: it translates into tangible achievements that improve the lives of families and the resilience of territories. 

Among these actions, the rehabilitation of dykes plays an important role. These infrastructures are vital for rice cultivation during the dry season, a key crop for household food security. By consolidating these structures, municipalities enable family farms to maintain their production and income, even during periods of water stress. 

Another innovative initiative is the establishment of a sewage sludge treatment plant (PROFERTIL project)**. This facility addresses two challenges: purifying water to protect public health and producing organic fertilizers for agriculture. It is a circular solution that perfectly illustrates the logic of sustainability promoted by cooperation. 

These projects, carried out with the support of Agrisud and local authorities, show that the agro-ecological transition also requires structural investments at the municipal and provincial levels. They strengthen the capacity of territories to cope with crises and build sustainable food systems. 

Efficient cooperation 

By combining technical expertise, political commitment, and local mobilization, this cooperation demonstrates how communities, NGOs, and donors can work together to achieve sustainable food systems. 

As Picheth Seng, Agrisud representative in Cambodia, points out: “By diversifying their activities, these small farms achieve food and nutritional self-sufficiency, earn regular incomes, and help supply local markets.” 

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* The TETARD project (Territories Committed to Agroecological Transition, Resilience, and Sustainable Food) is co-financed by the Agence française de développement (AFD) through the FICOL (Local Authority Financing Facility). It finances development projects identified and implemented by French local authorities as part of decentralized cooperation.

** The PROFERTIL project aims to improve the conditions for collecting and treating sewage sludge in Siem Reap, to produce organic fertilizers and to promote their use in local agricultural systems (rice farming, market gardening, fruit growing, etc.).