Rural change in Cambodia manifests itself in rapidly declining land availability
for the smallholder sector, posing the question of how farmers may be able to deal with
limited access to land. In this paper, we discuss with a case study village and household
livelihood strategies of smallholders currently operating under land-constrained conditions.
Based on an integrated assessment of a smallholder village in Kampot province, we
illustrate in quantitative terms how land shortage is creating problems of surplus generation
and liquidity issues in monetary and non-monetary flows. At the household level, livelihood
diversification based on the involvement of productive resources other than land may
play an increasing role, particularly in the future, when levels of land shortage may
increase. At the village level, smallholder may respond through institutional innovation, in
particular through the establishment of a community banking system and a paddy rice bank
to provide money and rice credits to overcome transitory shortages and to cover investment
costs for additional productive resources. Thus, in this case, we observe the emergence of
new patterns of livelihood in rural areas, based on the integration of non-land-based
economic activities and new institutional settings.