US$9.8 million loan to improve food security and incomes of rural poor people

Rome, 21 February 2012 – The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will provide a US$9.8 million loan to the Republic of the Congo to help improve food security and incomes of smallholder producers with a particular focus on young people and women.

The financing agreement for the Agricultural Value Chains Development Programme was signed today by Gilbert Ondongo, Minister of Finances, Budget and Public Portfolio of the Republic of the Congo, and Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD.

Although the agricultural sector in the Congo employs nearly 40 per cent of the economically active population, the sector contributes only 6 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product and about 2 per cent to the country’s exports. Since domestic food production does not meet national demand, food must be imported in large quantities.

Despite the country’s rich and varied agricultural potential and good rainfall, only 2 per cent of the 10 million hectares of arable land and pasturelands are in use. The oil sector dominates the country’s economy while poverty continues to deteriorate in rural areas.

The new IFAD supported programme will help smallholders living in rural areas of 10 departments which comprise 86 districts. More than 3,000 villages will have access to appropriate agricultural and fishing technologies for production, processing, storage and conservation. The programme aims to reduce the country’s dependence on food imports and to create sustainable job opportunities through the development of business centres, while at the same time alleviating women’s workload through new processing units.

In addition, the programme will support smallholder farmers to obtain higher prices for their agricultural products and rehabilitate rural roads to give them better access to markets.

Cofinanced by the government of the Congo, this new programme will be implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock and will directly and indirectly benefit more than 55,000 poor rural households, including women and young people.

Since 1983, with this new programme, IFAD will have financed seven programmes and projects in the Congo for a total investment of $56 million benefitting 112,573 households.

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Press release No.: IFAD/08/2012

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$13.7 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries through projects empowering about 405 million people to break out of poverty, thereby helping to create vibrant rural communities. 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).