Rome, 15 March 2011 – A US$ 39.2 million Agricultural Value Chain Development Programme will help reduce poverty and boost the local economy of the mountain zones of Taza Province in Morocco.

About 48,000 poor rural people – smallholders, landless farmers, rural women and unemployed young people – living in the area will benefit from the programme. 

IFAD will provide a loan of US$22.5 million and a grant of US$0.5 million to finance the programme. An agreement was signed today at IFAD headquarters by Hassan Abouyoub, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco to Italy and Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD.

“The programme will diversify the income sources of poor rural women, men and young people by promoting more profitable and better adapted higher value agricultural commodities,” said Mounif Nourallah, IFAD’s Country Programme Manager for Morocco. Production increases are expected to range from 20 per cent for meat to 200 per cent for honey.

“The programme will also enhance value-added at the farm level through processing, packaging and direct access to profitable markets,” Nourallah said, adding that “the programme will ensure the sustainability of investments by supporting basic socio-economic infrastructure to address constraints facing value chain development.”

The four value chains for olives, almonds, honey and red meat will be supported by the programme. The value-added to products will enable smallholders to achieve a greater autonomy in the long term. The programme will also develop public-private partnerships with local processing enterprises that will develop their own labels and marketing channels.

The programme will seek to build up the organizational and managerial skills of small-scale farmers and rural women engaged in value chain development. It will also finance functional literacy activities, giving priority to rural women, young people and grass-roots organizations.

The enhancement of rural financial services and the promotion of small and medium-sized rural enterprises will be a major component under the programme. It will be instrumental in building a permanent and viable network of income-generating activities to help boost the local economy and create employment opportunities, especially for women and young people.

With this project, IFAD will have financed 12 projects and programmes in Morocco for a total commitment of US$188.0 million.

Press release No.: IFAD/20/2011

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$12.5 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries, empowering more than 370 million people to break out of poverty. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome – the United Nation’s food and agricultural hub. It is a unique partnership of 167 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).