THE European Union announced Wednesday that it would put up US$7.4 million in new funding for six NGO-run food-security projects targeting vulnerable groups.

Rafael Dochao Moreno, the charge d’affaires for the Delegation of the European Union to Cambodia, said the funding was made necessary by a surge in food and energy prices and the impact of the global financial crisis.

“I expect that poor Cambodian farmers, in particular those affected by volatile food prices, will be able to avoid hunger and reduce their poverty,” he said, addressing NGOs gathered at a conference in Phnom Penh on Wednesday.

The money has been earmarked for projects run by both local and international groups, with the largest sums – $1.9 million and $1.7 million, respectively – going to a World Vision project aimed at fighting poverty and a civil society development project run by the French NGO Agronomes et Veterinaires Sans Frontieres.

The EU currently manages a portfolio of 24 food-security projects in the Kingdom, Dochao Moreno said.