Release number IFAD/23/08

Rome, 16 April 2008 – A new project in Angola will increase incomes of rural smallholders in the provinces of Bié, Huambo and Malanje by improving agricultural productivity and revitalizing markets.

The US$49.5 million Market-oriented Smallholder Agriculture Project will be partly financed by an IFAD loan ofUS$8.2 million. The loan agreement was signed today at IFAD headquarters by Angola’s Ambassador to Italy, Manuel Pedro Pacavira, and IFAD’s President, Lennart Båge.

The World Bank will contribute US$30.1 million to the project and the Government of Japan an additional US$4 million. The Government of Angola will provide US$4.1 million and project participants, the equivalent of US$3 million.

After almost three decades of war, peace in Angola has opened the way for reconstruction,yet the war left the country with one of the highest poverty levels in the world: 68 per cent of Angolans live below the poverty line; and 15 per cent of households live in extreme poverty.

“Angola could be a rich agricultural country, but the war and lack of investment have severely held back the sector,” said Carla Ferreira, IFAD’s country programme manager for Angola.

“However, we see a significant potential to increase agricultural production by expanding the average area that each farmer cultivates, increasing labour productivity and making markets more efficient,” she said. “That is what this project is going to tackle.”

Some 126,000 households in the area are expected to directly benefit from the project. Most are smallholder farmers who cultivate on average 1-2 hectares of cropland. A large proportion of these households consist of recently returned persons who have taken up farming. The project activities will begin in the province of Bié, and will later be expanded to Malanje and Huambo.

The project will establish community-driven participatory processes to identify local needs for small-scale agricultural investments, which will be funded through matching grants. It will build the capacity of private-sector service providers and improve links with other development organizations. The project has a gender-sensitive design, and includes budgeting for childcare to enable women to attend training courses.

To improve farmers’ skills and knowledge, the project will set up Farmer Field Schools, hold workshops, exchange visits and study tours at both the municipal and provincial levels to share lessons in project implementation in the different target areas.

The project will also provide the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and other relevant institutions with skills and equipment to improve their capacity, and will help develop an appropriate policy framework for agricultural intensification and marketing. Experience gained during implementation will inform the capacity-building activities of the policy and strategic planning units of the Ministry of Agriculture.

IFAD’s primary objective in post-conflict Angola is to ensure food security and help increase incomes, particularly for people living in the poorest areas of the central highlands. IFAD’s programmes and projects address vulnerable groups such as women and households headed by women, as well as young people, demobilized soldiers and displaced persons. With this project, IFAD has provided a total US$44.3 million for five projects, directly benefiting 311,800 households.

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IFAD was created 30 years ago to tackle rural poverty, a key consequence of the droughts and famines of the early 1970s. Since 1978, IFAD has invested more than US$10 billion in low-interest loans and grants that have helped over 300 million very poor rural women and men increase their incomes and provide for their families.
IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency. It is a global partnership of OECD, OPEC and other developing countries. Today, IFAD supports more than 200 programmes and projects in 84 developing countries.