Press release number: IFAD 40/04

Rome, 7 December 2004 - The Executive Board of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) approved US$ 319.5 million in loans and US$ 6.4 million in grants to improve the living conditions of rural poor people in 17 countries.

The 83rd session of the Board, which met at IFAD’s headquarters in Rome, approved loans and grants to support rural development projects and programmes in Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Jordan, Lesotho, Nepal, the Sudan, Tanzania, Viet Nam and Zambia.

The Board also approved three grants totalling US$ 3.9 million to support a range of agricultural activities, including emergency assistance to control the spread of desert locusts in northern and west Africa. In Rwanda, a grant will strengthen the implementation of a national agriculture strategy and action plan. In seven Pacific Island countries, a grant will improve the capacity of poor, rural communities to address development challenges posed by their remoteness and isolation.

IFAD loans to countries in the Asia and the Pacific region amount to US$ 88.4 million. In Indonesia, IFAD will provide a US$ 33.8 million loan and a US$ 500,000 grant to fund a US$ 37.7 million programme designed to encourage rural enterprises and establish linkages between marginal upland and coastal communities of the Central Sulawesi Province for sustained rural income growth.

In Viet Nam, IFAD will tackle poverty in 841 villages in the Ha Giang and Quang Bihn provinces by contributing a US$ 24.1 million loan and a US$ 630,000 grant to a US$ 38.7 million decentralized, poverty reduction programme. Women and indigenous peoples will be the programme’s main targets, and will benefit from improved access to credit, training and employment opportunities.

In Bangladesh, a US$ 20.1 million loan will fund a US$ 29.74 million microfinance project designed to promote savings and credit groups among more than 200,000 mostly female, small-scale farmers.

In Nepal, IFAD will support an eight-year programme aimed at promoting leasehold forestry and livestock in poor communities.

A US$ 10.4 million loan and a US$ 1.2 million grant from IFAD will largely finance the US$ 12.7 million programme.

In Eastern and Southern Africa, loans worth US$ 76.1 million will support agricultural services in Tanzania, rural finance in Zambia, sustainable agriculture and natural resource management in Lesotho and improved agricultural marketing in Ethiopia.

Farmers in Tanzania will gain better access to agricultural and financial services and the knowledge and technology they need to improve their food security and incomes through a US$ 221 million rural development programme. IFAD will invest US$ 25 million in the initiative.

In Ethiopia, about 500,000 coffee and grain producers will benefit from a US$ 36.2 million programme designed to improve agricultural marketing. Improved processing, storage and transport facilities, as well as better market research, policy analysis and planning, will reduce post-harvest crop losses and increase returns to poor farmers. The programme will be partly financed by a US$ 27.2 million loan from IFAD.

In Zambia, a US$ 17.4 million rural finance programme will develop community-based financial institutions, expand rural banking services and promote new financial services. IFAD will provide a loan of US$ 13.8 million for the implementation of this six-year programme.

In Lesotho, a US$ 12 million programme will aim to increase production among landless and small-scale farmers in the southern districts of Mafeteng, Mohale’s Hoek and Quthing through improved natural resource management. The amount of the IFAD loan for this programme is US$ 10.1 million.

For Latin America and the Caribbean, IFAD loans total US$ 75 million. In Argentina, small farmers and indigenous communities living in the Patagonia region will benefit from a project designed to help transform subsistence activities into small, profitable businesses over the next six years. An IFAD loan of US$ 20 million will largely finance the US$ 28 million project.

In Brazil, an IFAD loan will contribute to increasing rural incomes by supporting entrepreneurial activities among some 20,000 rural producers in the arid north-east region of the country. The US$ 47.4 million project will be financed partly by a US$ 23.2 million IFAD loan.

In Guatemala, a US$ 17 million loan will partly finance a US$ 38 million programme designed to promote market-oriented, small businesses for rural poor people in the central and eastern regions of the country through technical and financial support.

In Ecuador, an IFAD loan of US$ 14.8 million will partly fund a US$ 24.3 million project designed to promote economic development in the geographically diverse corridor between the Amazonian region, the Pacific coast and the highlands. About 36,000 rural poor families living along this corridor will also benefit from improved natural resource management.

In the Near East and North Africa region, IFAD will provide US$ 64 million in loans. In Algeria, a US$ 39.6 million project will help rural communities in the mountainous northern region of Tlemcen Province generate new sources of off-farm income and improve natural resource management. The seven-year project will be financed partly by a US$ 11.8 million loan from IFAD. The Government of Algeria will provide US$ 24.5 million and project participants will contribute US$ 3.3 million.

In Armenia, IFAD will help finance a US$ 28.7 million economic development programme in seven rural mountain districts. One of the programme’s main goals is to boost local incomes by improved access to rural finance, including seasonal credit for small farmers and medium- and long-term loans for rural enterprises. A substantial part of IFAD’s US$ 15.3 million loan will be used to provide refinancing capital to pre-qualified commercial banks and other eligible financial institutions.

In the state of Kordofan in western Sudan, a US$ 49 million programme will benefit about 200,000 poor households, especially pastoral farmers, by improving natural resource management and access. The programme will work to transfer land and water management to local users’ communities and demarcate dedicated herding and farming areas. IFAD will support the programme with a US$ 25.5 million loan which will be signed by the President of IFAD as soon as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement has been signed.

In Jordan, IFAD will provide a US$ 11.4 million loan and a US$ 200,000 grant to support the second phase of the Agricultural Resources Management Project, which has a total cost of US$ 41.7 million.

In Western and Central Africa, IFAD will loan US$ 16 million for an eight-year sustainable rural development programme in Burkina Faso. The US$ 38.3 million programme will benefit about 440,000 people in 374 villages in the central and northern provinces by working to increase and diversify agricultural production and other income-generating activities, and enhance watershed management. The programme will also secure land access for rural poor farmers.

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IFAD is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating rural poverty. More than 200 IFAD-supported rural poverty eradication programmes are currently underway. IFAD has invested about US$ 3 billion in these programmes, which are worth a total of US$ 6.5 billion. At full development, these programmes will help more than 100 million rural poor men and women to achieve better lives for themselves and their families.