Press release No.: IFAD/36/08

IFAD will contribute a total amount of US$5.76 million: US$2.8 million with a highly concessional terms loan, and a non-reimbursable grant of the same amount.

Rome, 24 July 2008.  A new project in Guyana will help small producers diversify agricultural production and sell their produce at national and international markets. 

The US$6.93 million Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Development project will be supported by IFAD with a US$2.8 million loan, provided onhighly concessional terms and a non-reimbursable grant of the same amount. The Government of Guyana will contribute US$ 850,000 and the project participants themselves will provide an additional US$ 320,000.

The agreement was signed today at IFAD headquarters by the Ambassador of Guyana in Brussels, Patrick Ignatius Gomes, and the President of IFAD, Lennart Båge.

As Guyana’s ability to compete in the international markets with its traditional national crops has declined, like sugar and rice, the project will help small farmers find alternative sources of income in non-traditional agricultural products such as root crops, vegetables, tropical fruits and spices, and livestock products.

Some 5,200 poor rural households from regions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10 of the country will benefit from better access to financial and other capital services, as well as training in the areas of enterprise development, marketing, organizational and social development.

With this project, IFAD will have financed three rural development and poverty eradication projects in Guyana for a total commitment of US$ 22.2 million.

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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 81 developing countries and one territory.