Press release No.: IFAD/52/08

Rome, 17 October 2008. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will lend US$19.3 million to Argentina to implement the US$ 44.8 million National Rural Areas Development Programme (PRODEAR).

The programme, targeting an estimated 20,000 direct beneficiaries, will improve living conditions for low-income households, mainly composed of smallholders and rural labourers, women and young people with limited employment opportunities, and aboriginal communities. Under the programme, incentives will be provided to convert unprofitable activities to sustainable enterprises, and empower associations of small producers to lower their production costs.

The programme will be implemented over the next five years in the provinces of Misiones, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Chaco, Formosa, la Pampa, Mendoza and San Juan.

The agreement was signed in Buenos Aires today by Carlos Fernández, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Argentina on behalf of the President of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and IFAD’s Country Programme manager Paolo Silveri, on behalf of IFAD’s President, Lennart Båge.

“This new programme will benefit from IFAD’s experience and knowledge acquired over more than 17 years in the country”, said Silveri. With PRODEAR, IFAD will move from the traditional project focus to a nation-wide collaboration with the central government, provincial governments and other bodies with a stake in rural development, such as producers’ associations and the private sector.

PRODEAR follows four other initiatives supported by IFAD in Argentina, which have targeted 43,000 poor households in the northern provinces as well as Patagonia, one of the country’s regions with the highest incidence of rural poverty.

Since 1991, IFAD has lent US$84 million to Argentina to finance rural development and poverty reduction projects.

---

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.