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S. Leone’s varsity signs MoU with AVDP for oil palm project
IFAD supports projects that increase agricultural productivity and incomes in Madagascar
Rural development projects financed and supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have helped to reduce rural poverty and increase rural entrepreneurship in Madagascar, according to a new report presented today.
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The report, prepared by IFAD’s Independent Office of Evaluation (IOE), reviews the joint work of IFAD and the Government of Madagascar over the past seven years (2013- 2019), covering six projects with a total project cost of US$510 million, of which 59 per cent was financed by IFAD. The evaluation report highlights achievements as well as areas for further improvement.
IFAD- supported projects aim to raise the incomes and improve livelihoods, food security and living conditions of the world’s poorest people, who live in rural areas of developing countries. In the years after the 2009-2012 political crisis, IFADsupported projects helped rural poor by providing them with the abilities and skills to improve their productivity and better capitalize on economic opportunities.
Several projects introduced innovations into Madagascar, leading to positive results. For instance, IFAD was successful in integrating a large number of microenterprises and small businesses into high-value sectors by pairing farmers’ organizations with market operators, which improved farmers’ access to the markets. According to the report, the creation of nearly 400 of these pairs attracted over US$5.4 million in private sector investments. signed a US $ 191m Memorandum of Understanding with the Agriculture Value Chain Development Project (AVDP) to implement an Oil Palm project at the University Secretariat. The project is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and is geared towards nursing around 540, 000 oil palm seedlings in the next three months for onward distribution to fifteen districts across the country. Acting Vice Chancellor and Principal, Professor Osman Sankoh welcomed the Deputy Minister “We are quite proud of our gains in Madagascar in terms of rural productivity, incomes and entrepreneurship. Linking farmers with market operators was key for improving economic opportunities in rural areas”, said Sara MbagoBhunu, Regional Director of IFAD’s East and Southern Africa Division (ESA).
IFAD played a key role in improving access of rural entrepreneurs to productive assets, support services and financial services. The report states that IFAD helped create networks of service providers, and collaboration and support platforms, thus contributing to the development of rural entrepreneurship.
Capacity development and training for young farmers helped them set up and develop their own businesses. “Approximately 70,000 people of Agriculture and the Project Management Unit of AVDP to Njala Campus. He assured the AVDP Project Management Unit and the Deputy Minister that his staff at the School of Agriculture have all what it takes to implement the project. On his part, the deputy minister of Agriculture, Dr Abdu Karim noted that the New Direction Government was not only keen in improving agriculture for farmers but it is also committed to building the capacity of key institutions like Njala University to enhance national agricultural promotion. While giving the vote of thanks, Dr Alieu Bah, Head of Department, Crop Science, benefited from training and outreach activities, which are essential for the development of our beneficiaries’ capacities and the dissemination of improved production techniques”, said Fabrizio Felloni, Interim Officer-in-Charge, IOE.
IFAD’s work in the country is not over, however, and he went on to describe some of the areas for future work. “The report shows that there is a need to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of the operations, by better engaging key actors such as microfinance institutions, better defining the geographical reach of operations and further strengthening capacity development and skills,” Felloni said. “Additional efforts are also needed to integrate the most vulnerable into the country strategy and programme. The evaluation recommends to fine tune targeting, providing more subsidies for income-generating activities and credit to help the most vulnerable people participate fully in these activities.”
According to the evaluation report, the management of natural resources and adaptation to climate change impacts needs to become a key objective in IFAD’s next country strategy for Madagascar. IFAD is looking at how it can improve work in this area in order to ensure sustainability and improve the livelihoods of the
Sierra Leone’s varsity signs MoU with AVDP for oil palm project
Njala University Sierra Leone has
rural poor.
School of Agriculture and Food Science, praised the Acting Vice Chancellor and Principal for the support accorded to the School of Agriculture in actualizing the eventual signing of the MOU.
He underscored the point that the project would increase the profile of the University to once more provide jobs and enhance the capacity of women and youths in the surrounding communities. He continued that Njala University would also benefit from tools and training for its students during the project implementation stage.
Retool annual budgets toward agriculture production and expand food reserves, as COVID-19 exacerbates food scarcity, urges African Development Institute seminar
African countries need to urgently expand food reserves, keep food supply flowing and boost their agriculture budgets to avert a possible hunger pandemic, partly caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, delegates at a twoday webinar hosted by the African Development Institute (ADI) urged on Tuesday.
Africa must now, more than ever, develop and implement policies to enhance capacity to compete in the agriculture sector, processing, trade and industry, the speakers said in a clarion call for action.
Noting that COVID-19 has fast-tracked the transition to the 4th Industrial Revolution era, participants also called on African governments to scale up technology for agriculture production, including private sector-led initiatives, to build resilience and grow the sector to self-sufficiency.
The webinar, titled, Building Resilience in Food Systems and Agricultural Value Chains: Agricultural Policy Responses to COVID-19 in Africa, examined the pandemic’s impacts on Africa’s agri-food systems and offered policy recommendations to make them more resilient and efficient.
The dialogue, which drew 770 experts from 57 countries, was the second in a series ADI organised under its Global Community of Practice (G-CoP) to provide evidence-based policy guidance to African Development Bank Group member countries.
Participants urged governments to prioritise agriculture and agribusiness in national security agenda by implementing structural reforms. Reforms proposed include merging ministries of agriculture, health, trade and industry and environment into ‘One Health Ministry’ for greater impact.
Introducing trade or non-trade barriers is not a welcome policy in Africa, especially during the pandemics, the forum noted. It therefore called on Africa to establish green corridors and domestic food systems and keep inter-regional food supply chains open during the pandemic.
Many African countries must import food to meet domestic demand and so face dangerous food shortages due to COVID-19 related supplychain disruptions. Further, a number of countries in East Africa and the Horn are grappling with another food security threat: locust swarms.
Participants noted that food insecurity had been a problem prior to the pandemic, as many African countries lack adequate strategic food reserves. Other challenges, including climate change, water scarcity, and poorly developed agricultural markets were also discussed. These factors driving extreme hunger could kill far much more than COVID-19 in Africa if lockdowns persist without clearing the “choke-points” in the food supply chain to the vulnerable, the meeting observed.
Without COVID-19, many of our people were already hungry. The pandemic has worsened the situation. Let’s call this an emergency for food production and let this crisis not waste, they noted.
Speakers likened this to “a silent war on the most vulnerable populations without guns.”
Participants offered several policy solutions, including promotion of research; enhancing capacity; and expansion of regional agricultural trade, with the African Continental Free Trade Area representing one pathway to resilient regional food supply chains. The experts also called for the establishment of national agricultural productivity accelerator funds to support smallholder farmers and SMEs to ramp up production.
Women represent a large share of the agriculture workforce, and participants urged the deployment of funding and technical support, including cash transfers to women and smallholder farmers, to accelerate agriculture and food production. They proposed that long-term contracts should be signed with local producers, urban farmers and suppliers to help safeguard supply. The Bank’s Technologies for African Transformation (TAAT) and the Special Agricultural Processing Zones (SCPZs) were identified as good stimulators for building resilience in African food systems and agricultural value chains.
The webinar, organized in partnership with African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE), featured speakers from the World Bank, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), universities of agriculture, and agricultural policy research institutions and networks.
The African Development Institute (ADI) is the African Development Bank’s focal point for Capacity Development. Its goal is to lead efforts at building sustainable capacity for development effectiveness in the Bank’s regional member countries.