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The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) has said its providing technical advisory support to a new World Bank’s investment project in Ethiopia valued at $600 million to increase the resilience of food systems and preparedness for food insecurity, reports NaijaAgroNet.
As a result of climate change, smallholder farmers in Ethiopia are suffering from greater variability and extreme weather events, increased temperature and declining rainfall in a country where 85 percent of farmers are depended on rain-fed agriculture. Ethiopia is currently in the middle of one of the worst droughts for 50 years which follows 12 to 18 months of erratic and failed rains which have dried up many water sources. The war in Ukraine and subsequent rising wheat, fuel and fertilizer costs are also worsening the country’s food crisis.
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Showing posts with label smallholder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smallholder. Show all posts
Friday, June 24, 2022
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
IFAD wants increased access to finance for smallholder farmers - NaijaAgroNet
Indications have emerged that over 440,000 smallholder
farmers in Mali to have better access to rural financial services thanks to a
new agreement signed on 6 July by the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD) and the Republic of Mali, reports NaijaAgroNet.
The new agreement will provide financial support to the
Inclusive Finance in Agricultural Value Chain Project (INCLUSIF), which will be
implemented in five regions of the country (Koulikoro, Sikasso, Kayes, Ségou
and Mopti). By providing a range of financial products, including savings,
credit and micro-insurance, the project will enable smallholder farmers to
invest in the necessary infrastructure and equipment that will help them
produce, store, process and better market their products.
“INCLUSIF’s vision is to promote the sustainable
transformation of agricultural value chains by improving financial inclusion
for disadvantaged groups, such as women and young people, and their
organizations,” said Philippe Rémy, IFAD Country Programme Manager for Mali.
Rémy said INCLUSIF will bring 440,000 smallholders and 360
agricultural professional organizations into the banking system. In addition,
over 40,000 producers will have access to financing for climate change
adaptation. The project will also develop profitable and sustainable
relationships with the private sector and the financial system.
Currently, financial inclusion in Mali’s rural areas stands
at 20 per cent. Small and medium-sized enterprises also experience difficulties
in accessing finance. In 2016, less than 1 per cent of bank credit went to the
agricultural sector.
The total cost of the project is US$105.5 million, including
a $22.9 million loan and $22.9 million grant from IFAD. The project will be
cofinanced by the Government of Denmark ($21.6 million), rural finance
institutions ($15.5 million), the ABC Microfinance (Babyloan) ($0.4 million),
the private sector ($5.4 million), the Government of Mali ($4.6 million) and by
the beneficiaries themselves ($1.9 million). The financing gap of $10.4 million
will be covered from future IFAD financing rounds or by other potential
cofinancing partners.
The financial agreement was signed by Gilbert F. Houngbo,
President of IFAD, and Boubou Cissé, Minister of Economy and Finance of the
Republic of Mali.
Since 1982, IFAD has financed 14 rural development
programmes and projects in Mali at a total cost of $630 million, with an IFAD
investment of $274.9 million. These programmes and projects have directly
benefitted more than 516,000 rural households.
Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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Monday, April 9, 2018
Support to smallholder farmers, women, youth top agenda @Mauritania
The imperative of supporting smallholder farmers, women and
youth are top on the agenda for a forthcoming meeting between the President of International
Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Mr. Gilbert F. Houngbo, and Mauritanian
President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, reports NaijaAgroNet.
The meeting, according to David Florentin Paqui of IFAD
Communications Division in Nouakchott, affirmed to NaijaAgroNet, said would be
witnessed by senior officials of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, to discuss
how investment in agriculture could ensure food and nutrition security and
create jobs for rural people, particularly women and youth.
NaijaAgroNet
recalls that in Mauritania, 41 per cent of the population lives in rural areas,
and half depend on agriculture for their income, whereas farming generates 25
per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), hence, small farms are vital for the
country’s food security as well as its economy.
During an official three-day visit to the country starting
Monday, April 9, Houngbo hinted his meeting with the Mauritanian President and
Prime Minister, Yahya Ould Hademine would have support for smallholders
farmers, women and youth top on agenda.
In addition, NaijaAgroNet
gathered that a joint working meeting with the Minister of Economy and Finance,
the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of Livestock and the Minister of
Environment will focus on the role of smallholder farmers in ensuring food
security in Mauritania, the challenge of climate change, and the opportunities
agriculture can offer to young people in rural areas.
Investing in a new generation of smallholder farmers is
essential. Of Mauritania’s 4 million people, 40 per cent are under 15 years of
age, 60 per cent are under 25 and only 5 per cent are over 60. Half of the
population derives their livelihoods from raising crops and livestock and
fishing. Although the country is self-sufficient in red meat and fish, it
imports 60 per cent of other staple foodstuffs, particularly rice, vegetables,
sugar and cooking oil.
IFAD and the government of Mauritania are working together
to improve food security and nutrition, increase the incomes of poor rural
households, create jobs and reduce the country's dependence on food imports.
Since 1980, IFAD has financed 14 projects and programmes in Mauritania for a
total of $342.3 million, including $136.2 million from IFAD’s own resources,
directly benefitting nearly 190,470 Mauritanian rural households.
Houngbo will deliver a keynote address at the opening
session of the Regional Implementation Forum organized in Nouakchott by the
West and Central Africa Division of IFAD. Later, he will join Lemina Mint El
Ghotob Ould Moma, Minister of Agriculture, in Kiffa to meet with rural people
benefiting from an IFAD-supported Poverty Reduction Project in Aftout South and
Karakoro – Phase II designed to help build, an economic and social fabric based
on sustainable natural resource management that is inclusive of poor rural
households, particularly women and young people. Because of its achievements in
promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, this project was a recipient
of a 2017 IFAD Gender Award.
Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Smallholder farmers need agribusiness skills to succeed–Nnaemego
The
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/Founder, Fresh Young Brain Development
Initiative, Barr.Nkiruka Nnaemego, has said rural women and smallholder farmers
need agribusiness skills and transformative leadership to succeed in the
sector, NaijaAgroNet reports.
Nnaemego
who was speaking at the Rural Women Farmers Forum (RWFF) General Assembly held
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said leadership
is a process
of directing and influencing
another individual or group of
individuals to accomplish
a goal;an art and ability of inspiring,
guiding, and directing people so that they ardently desire to do what the
leader wishes.
NaijaAgroNet also reports that the training was
organised to help women
and smallholder farmers have access to
additional skills and knowledge to enable them to move from a 'farm' to a'firm
(business)’.
Nnaemego enumerated ways
to build good customer relation in agribusiness to include keeping customers
details (names, phone numbers and other relevant
information), which would help for easy contact
of clients especially when
“you’ve not seen them for
a while.”
Listening, she said, is just as important as
telling, stressing the importance of talking with your clients often
that apart from business purpose,
the farmer should build informal relationship by calling them often to show
them “you care.”
NaijaAgroNet also reports that Nnaemego
encouraged farmers to set and manage realistic
expectations,adding that as much as
customers want their
problems to be fixed,
farmers should try as much as
possible not to disappoint
them.
“It is
better
to always be truthful and realistic
than disappointing them,” she cautioned, pointing out that reward is a
very simple form of saying 'thank
you.' This could be verbally or in
action through discounts or
free products.
On customer segmentation, she said, the farmer could group
customers according to their
common needs, common behaviours
or other afford them to answer the question:Are they
willing to pay for your product
or service?Who are they?
Are they old, young, and from where, rural or urban?
Customer relationship,
she told the women farmers, is a way an
agropreneur communicates
and deals with existing and future customers in other to retain and gain more client, solidify
relation with existing ones and
loyalty which increases profitability.
Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Cousin wants increase support for smallholder farmers
NaijaAgroNet
Cousin, a former supermarket executive and
diplomat, in an interview monitored by NaijaAgroNet,said the damage
caused by climate change, coupled with a lack of development both in
agricultural and economics perpetually keep small-scale farmers on the edge.
She noted for instance that in woefully
underdeveloped nations like four-year-old South Sudan, conflict feeds into that
downward spiral.
"The global community is well aware that
climate change is impacting sub-Saharan Africa. Erratic rains have become more
of a reality for across the entire continent... The vulnerable people around
the world need a strong global response to address the issues of climate change
to ensure that we can minimize the impacts in the future. But today, what we
must do is implement disaster risk mitigation strategies that will support
vulnerable populations…” she said.
70 per cent of the people who are food insecure in the world today, she said, live in rural areas, noting that if this is not addressed the challenges of unproductive agriculture, then, the issue of food security or the issue of hunger cannot be overcome.
“So we must increase the ability of smallholder farmers to scale up their agricultural yields and provide markets for them to sell those yields to ensure that we can create sustainable and durable agricultural value chains that support the food security of families, as well as the economic viability of those families. That is the only way that we are going to make progress," Cousin said.
Cyriacus
Nnaji/GEE
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology
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