“TONLESAP” THE FIRST MOBILE APPLICATION PROVIDES AGRICULTURE KNOWLEDGE IN CAMBODIA

Phnom Penh – On 29 January 2019, AMK Microfinance Institution Plc. officially launches the TONLESAP Mobile Application at the Great Duke Hotel, Phnom Penh with the participation of many local and international distinguished guests and media. The TONLESAP App is initiated and developed by AMK in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and funded by IAP, SIDA, IB Sweden, BoP Inc., and the Harvest II project of the USAID.

     Mr. Kea Borann, Chief Executive Officer of AMK, stated that “Over 50% of AMK loan clients using the fund for agricultural purposes to growing crops and raising animals. AMK has initiated and developed this App in responding to the clients need with technical support from the Royal Government of Cambodia, national and international organizations. It is another achievement that AMK contribute to the strengthening of the agricultural sector in Cambodia.” He added, “We strongly believe that the TONLESAP App will provide extensive benefits to our farmers in growing the crops and raising livestock to generate more income. Therefore, in this Mobile App, we are trying to create an agriculture supply chain by linking suppliers, farmer, and direct buyer to meet each other. Additionally, this app provides technical expertise to increase farmers’ income, and the budget estimation so that they can plan for growing the crops and following the technical guidance, and contracting AMK Microfinance Institution directly for financial services as they need including loan or money transfer.

     At the launching event, Mr. Srun Sokhom, Deputy Director of General Directorate of agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries said that “The goal of Royal Government of Cambodia is to reduce poverty and strengthen economic growth through promoting several sectors, especially agriculture sector. The main goal for the development of the agricultural sector is to ensure food security, increase income, create jobs, and improve nutritional status for Cambodians by increasing agricultural productivity. The TONLESAP App was created amid the government’s direction and digital era to help provide agricultural knowledge to the people, especially Cambodian farmers. This App allows them to access resourceful includes the way to increase high yields to meet the standard, and a technique to increase agriculture productivity. Not only that, the most important thing is the farmers can better understand the market value of agricultural inputs which makes them more empowered to negotiate prices when they want to sell products, and possibly out of the loophole from some brokers in dropping their prices. I would like to point out that the partnership between the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and AMK Microfinance Institution shows a joint activity of the public-private sector as part of Public-Private Partnership Initiative that the Royal Government of Cambodia is currently paying attention and endorsing.” He added that “Finally, I would like to thank AMK as well as international, national organizations and development partners who have initiated and supported this App.”

     TONLESAP App is designed to provide agricultural knowledge to farmers includes technical, market information, key tactics in growing crops, type of types of equipment, and better technique to raise animals. Furthermore, farmers can access financial support to expand their farming through Apps. This App is a free download on the App Store for iOS and Play Store for Android. The App offers a range of features comprise of acquiring knowledge and farming techniques to grow the crop and raise livestock, sharing experience from successful farmers, getting advice from agricultural experts to solve their farming problems, finding appropriate agriculture equipment, and getting market information. The App can also record personal information on user farms.

     AMK is a leading Microfinance Institution in terms of outreach and borrower numbers. As of December of 2018, AMK has a coverage of 89% of total villages across Cambodia with the number of staff around 3,000, total clients of over 760,000 with a loan portfolio of over USD 252 million, and deposits of more than US$ 158 million. The number of offices has reached 150, and over 4,000 agents nationwide. AMK provides a variety of financial services including Loan, Deposit, Money Transfer, Micro Insurance, Personal Accident Insurance, Payment Service, Payroll Service, Mobile Banking, ATMs, and CDMs.