Rome, 12 April 2010 – A new US$26.4 million IFAD-supported project will help reduce poverty and enhance food security in three of Turkey’s most eastern provinces. The Ardhan-Kars-Artvin Development Project will endeavour to improve livestock and horticulture production and village service industries to the benefit of some 13,000 poor households in 160 villages of the Ardhan, Kars and Artvin provinces.

IFAD will provide a loan of US$19.2 million on ordinary terms to finance the project under an agreement signed by Kanayo Nwanze, President of IFAD, and Salih Ercan, Economic Counsellor of the Turkish Embassy in Rome today.

“The Project will assist the local communities improve their institutional capacities and self-reliance in achieving a sustainable agricultural growth along with increased farm competitiveness and strengthened farm-to-market linkages”, said Henning Pedersen, IFAD’s country programme Manager for Turkey. It consists of three key components, namely, smallholder and non-farm enterprise investments; village infrastructure investments; and institutional strengthening and project management,” he added. Pedersen affirmed that “the project will help increase the assets and incomes of poor women and men smallholders and of small rural entrepreneurs, who have the potential and willingness to move towards commercial agriculture and other income generating activities.”

According to the project’s design document, it will introduce best practices in cereal and forage production, improve livestock husbandry practices, rehabilitate and modernize village and rural infrastructure and provide access to technologies, know-how, processing facilities and market linkages. Improved irrigation, for example, will lead to a 20 percent increase in the yields of cherries, apricots and tomatoes.

The project will eventually help the Government’s efforts to eliminating the substantial socio-economic development disparities that continue to exist among the regions and provinces of the country. A 20 percent reduction in the number of people living on less than US$4.5 per day will be achieved by the end of the five-year project.

With this project, IFAD will have financed eight projects in Turkey for a total of commitment of USD 142.7 million.

Press release No.: IFAD/27/2010

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) works with poor rural people to enable them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD has invested over US$11 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries, empowering some 350 million people to break out of poverty. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome – the UN’s food and agricultural hub. It is a unique partnership of 165 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).