The Financialization of Agrarian Landscapes in Cambodia

Project Objective

1. What role have international financial institutions played in creating Cambodia’s rural financial market?
2. How has national-level policy sought to create, and regulate, the rural financial market in Cambodia?

Project Description

Financial markets have recently transformed agrarian landscapes throughout Southeast Asia. Smallholder farmers have gained access to formal financial technologies—such as microcredit, insurance, and mobile banking—to capitalize agricultural production and manage their risks. Proponents of finance argue that these new markets will promote economic growth and improve rural people’s livelihoods. In contrast, others have argued that financial markets do not necessarily lead to sustainable or equitable growth.

Yet this debate about the outcomes of finance cannot be resolved without better understanding the processes and mechanisms that connect the rural financial sector to national and international markets. There is considerable national-level variation of financial markets in Southeast Asia, for instance, which might be explained by each countries’ different regulations and institutions that mediate integration into the global financial system. This project addresses this gap about rural finance in Southeast Asia by examining the case of Cambodia.