Target group. The project will target members of farmers' associations, professional farmers' organizations and their apex organizations. It will also target small-scale producers with little or no land, households with food deficits, women and young people. Project objectives. The project's overall goal is to improve the income and reduce the vulnerability of smallholders, especially the poorer ones. This will be achieved by facilitating their access to a range of agricultural services adapted to their needs and by promoting the development of professional organizations. Specifically, the project will seek to: (i) professionalize small-scale producers with a view to improving their technical competencies, facilitating their integration in the economic environment, and developing a dialogue with other agricultural development stakeholders at local, regional and national levels; (ii) increase the range of non-financial agricultural services provided by the private, public and association sectors, and adapt these services to the needs of smallholders, including the poorer ones; (iii) set up an intermediation mechanism - agricultural service centres - in order to help match service demand to available offer, through temporary interventions enabling a better functioning of existing markets; and (iv) set up a financial instrument - the Agricultural Development Fund - to provide smallholders with access to financing of services, without competing with the banking sector. Project description. The project will be articulated around four components, to be fine-tuned during project development:
Potential cofinanciers. Discussions are ongoing with the European Union, already heavily involved in setting up agricultural service centres and the Agricultural Development Fund, and with the African Development Fund and the African Development Bank. Other interested cofinanciers are invited to contact IFAD. Photo caption 1: IFAD photo by Robert Grossman - Madagascar, Upper Mandrare Basin Development Project. Members of a farming group called Filongoa, or 'friendship', work on 0.16 hectares of land. They are growing crops new to the area such as carrots, cabbages, onions, potatoes and cucumbers. The project has provided them with seeds, shovels, buckets and gloves; it has also rehabilitated a dam, which provides water for irrigation. Photo caption 2: IFAD photo by Robert Grossman - Madagascar, Upper Mandrare Basin Development Project. Close-up of carrots. In the community of Marotsiraka, 10,000 people in 18 villages use water from the Andratino River to grow rice, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, onions, cassava and carrots. Farmers have formed a local water users' group called Mamelonanivo, or 'feed thousands'. They are producing enough surplus produce to sell to hotels in Fort Dauphin |
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Project area. The project – known in Madagascar as the AROPA project – is expected to have both a national and a regional focus. Activities for improving access to services and service delivery through agricultural service centres will be national in character. The other activities will be implemented in three southern regions (Androy, Anosy and Atsimo-Atsinanana), expanding the results of the successful Upper Mandrare Basin Development Project. Exact locations will be determined at later stages of project development.
Important features. An in-depth consultative process took place before and during the project's formulation mission, and involved the IFAD Farmers' Forum, apex farmers' organizations, working groups of farmers' organizations and the Ministry of Agriculture. To define the various project components more clearly, a workshop was held in October 2007 with the participation of government representatives, donors, farmers' organizations and NGOs. This process has ensured that the project is consistent with the Ministry of Agriculture's development strategy and the country's poverty reduction strategy paper (the Madagascar Action Plan). The project will address one of the objectives of IFAD's country strategic opportunities programme - the increased engagement of small-scale producers and their organizations in economic and policy development through professionalization. It will also complement other projects in Madagascar, in particular the Support Programme for Rural Microenterprise Poles and Regional Economies (PROSPERER) due to start up in 2008. It is envisaged that the project will be included in a national programme for agriculture services, which will encompass agribusiness centres and the Agricultural Development Fund.