Rome/Abuja, 28 September, 2010 – The European Union (EU) has provided €20 million to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), to work with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in developing a coordinated response to increasing food security in the region by improving access to food.

In December 2008, EU’s €1 Billion Food Facility was set up, to provide support and bridge the gap between emergency aid and medium-to long-term development aid. This support comes at a time of worsening food insecurity caused by volatile food prices.

”The volatility of food prices in the last two years, accentuated by the global economic and financial crisis has put West African smallholder farmers in a difficult situation. Because of the wide geographical scope of the problem, part of the response to the crisis had to be regional to complement national EU funded Food Facility projects,” said Mr. David Mac Rae, Head of the EU Delegation for the Federal Republic of Nigeria and ECOWAS.

IFAD will implement the programme in close collaboration with ECOWAS, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and national governments in the context of on-going IFAD-financed projects in the region.

The programme aims to increase availability of improved seed varieties in the ECOWAS region. This will help small farmers to increase agricultural production and grow enough food in the long-term to meet the needs of vulnerable populations in the region.

The implementing programme partners will work with smallholder seed producers, farmers’ organizations and National Agricultural Research Systems on the key food crops of West Africa, namely rice, maize, cassava, peanuts and yam.

“We are pleased that the European Commission acknowledges IFAD’s expertise in enabling poor rural people to overcome hunger and poverty through increased food production,” said Mohamed Béavogui, IFAD’s Director for the West and Central Africa Division. “We are determined to achieve optimum results for the many hundreds of thousands who will benefit from the EU’s Food Facility support.”

Press release No.: IFAD/59/2010

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$12 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries, empowering more than 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).