Press release No.: IFAD/47/08

Rome, 1 October 2008 - A US$18.7 million loan and a US$515,000 grant from IFAD to the Republic of Madagascar for the Support to Farmers’ Professional Organizations and Agricultural Services Project
will help strengthen farmers’ organizations to increase levels of production, and better integrate into the economy. The IFAD project is co-financed by the European Union, African Development Bank and the World Bank and is part of the Agriculture Sector Programme recently adopted by the Government

The loan agreement was signed today in Rome by Jean Pierre Razafy-Andriamihaingo, Ambassador of the Republic of Madagascar to Italy, by the IFAD Vice-President, Kanayo F. Nwanze.

85% of the population of Madagascar live in rural areas and recent reforms have helped reduce rural poverty. The project will boost farmers’ production by supporting them in joining farmers’ associations and agri-business centres (CSA) to improve services to farmers. The project will improve access by rural poor people to financial services through regional agricultural funds (FRDA)

The IFAD project will target 75,000 poor rural families belonging to 1,000 farmer organizations, at the grass-roots level, regional level and six organizations at national level. These include small-scale farmers with little or no land and households with nutritional deficits. Women and young people will be specifically targeted as potential members of farmers’ associations.

Smallholders and their organizations will be strengthened so they can participate more closely in policy decisions. Farmers’ associations, supported by the project through training and capacity building, will have better access to rural and financial services in 5 regions of the south and center of Madagascar. The sustainable development of farming systems and the conservation of natural resources will be enhanced for 1,000 professional groups in the targeted regions, 12 CSAs and FRDAs, 125 farmer field schools, 2000 ha irrigation schemes, and 150 km feeder roads.
The programme will support the linkage of farmers’ organizations in Madagascar to worldwide networks.

To date IFAD has funded 13 rural development projects in Madagascar for a total of US$159 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 400 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 85 developing countries and one territory.