Family farming, policy dialogue, sustainable rural poverty reduction top agenda in meetings with government officials

Rome, 30 June 2011 – The President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Kanayo F. Nwanze, visits Argentina this coming week to see first-hand how Argentina’s rural poverty reduction programmes are providing new opportunities for family farmers to step out of poverty. 

The head of the United Nations’ rural poverty agency will meet with high-level government representatives in Buenos Aires, also visiting IFAD-funded projects in Chaco and Misiones Provinces.

At work in Argentina

Nwanze  –  accompanied by the Director of IFAD’s Latin America and the Caribbean Division, Josefina Stubbs – will meet 5 July with high-level representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, and the newly created Unit for Rural Change.

All IFAD-funded projects in Argentina are now being coordinated through the agricultural ministry’s Unit for Rural Change, allowing for increased cooperation on the national level and greater impact on the ground. 

Nwanze will travel to the Chaco and Misiones Provinces on 6 and 7 July to assess the impact the IFAD-supported Rural Areas Development Programme (PRODEAR) has had on poor rural people living in the region, meeting with family farmers, women’s organizations and provincial leaders.

While Argentina is technically a middle-income country with an average per capita income of over US$7500, access to technology, financial services, land and training remain key issues for poor people living in the countryside.

Official figures indicate that Argentina has areas, especially in the north, with higher rural poverty indicators than in some low-income countries.

“Beneficiary households in our project area have reported income increases of around 35 per cent, including increases of roughly 71 per cent in Misiones and 73 per cent in Corrientes Provinces,” said Nwanze, citing IFAD’s recent country program evaluation. “The Government of Argentina’s commitment to continue developing differentiated public policies for small-scale farmers will help these increases remain sustainable. Only by treating agriculture as a business can we give family farmers the tools they need to step out of poverty on their own.”

The IFAD delegation will wind up their visit 8 July with a meeting on strategic agricultural planning with government authorities, academics and representatives from the Confederation of Family Producers Associations of the MERCOSUR (COPROFAM), the Argentinean Agrarian Federation (FAA) and Via Campesina, among others.

IFAD funds three ongoing projects in Argentina – the North Western Rural Development Project (PRODERNOA), the Patagonia Rural Development Project (PRODERPA) and the Rural Areas Development Programme (PRODEAR). The projects benefit from US$56 million in IFAD financing at a total cost of US$98 million.

New funding for Argentina

“IFAD and the Government of Argentina have a long history of cooperation. And together with the Government of Argentina, IFAD is in the process of designing the Inclusive Rural Development Programme (PRODERI), which is scheduled to go to the IFAD Executive Board in September 2011,” said Stubbs. “In a country like Argentina, it’s important that we scale-up our operations to meet the specific needs of family farmers in a large emerging economy.”

In order to scale up IFAD’s work in Argentina, the new programme will invest US$150 million overall, including US$58 million in financing from IFAD and the Spanish Food Security Co-financing Facility Trust Fund, with the balance coming from national and local contributions.

Since 1984 IFAD has supported rural family farming development and poverty reduction efforts in Argentina through five projects at a total cost of US$150 million – this figure will double when IFAD approves PRODERI next September.

Large national grants – including an inter-agency grant between IFAD, the Inter-American Development Bank and Italy – have also contributed to the development of sector strategies, and sub-regional grants, such as REAF MERCOSUR and COPROFAM, have also benefitted the knowledge sharing and policy dialogue efforts of Argentina, both internally and in the region.

Notes to editors

Kanayo F. Nwanze will be available for interviews upon request. Please contact Greg Benchwick (g.benchwick@ifad.org) to request an interview.

Press release No.: IFAD/45/2011

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 about US$12.9 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).