A $13.5MN grant from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to the Republic of Togo will help improve food security and increase incomes for small-scale agricultural producers in the rural areas
p>A $13.5MN grant from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to the Republic of Togo will help improve food security and increase incomes for small-scale agricultural producers in the rural areas
The Steering Committee of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme (GAFSP) Trust Fund will transfer $20mn to IFAD for purposes of co-financing the Support to Agricultural Development Project (PADAT).
The IFAD and GAFSP financing agreement for the PADAT was signed today in Rome by Kossi Messan Ewovor, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Togolese Republic, and Yukiko Omura, Vice-President of IFAD.
The PADAT will help to raise productivity of small-scale growers of three staple food crops: cassava, maize and rice; and enhance value-added/marketing of their outputs. With the support of the Government and other donors, the project will promote pro-poor rural economic growth. The project will facilitate the entry of food-insecure farmers into the market economy, by enhancing self-reliance among marginally commercial small farmers and by helping rural producers’ organizations develop integrated value chains for the three main staple foods.
The PADAT coverage is nationwide, starting with the areas where farmers, women as well as men, are particularly vulnerable to poverty. The project will be implemented in phases in areas like Savannah, Kara, Maritime, Plateaux and Central regions where cassava, maize and rice are grown.
The project is expected to directly benefit some 107,500 small farmers. Approximately 75,000 of these direct beneficiaries will be reached through 3,000 producers’ organisations. The total number of indirect beneficiaries will be 368,000.
With this new programme IFAD will have financed 6 projects in Togo with investments totalling US$75mn.
