Smallholder Credit and Marketing Project

Smallholder Credit and Marketing Project

Most of Swaziland’s rural poor people live within Swazi Nation Land. Average landholdings are small and most farmers eke out a livelihood at subsistence level. Many have migrated in search of work. Since 1971 the country’s government has been promoting rural development area programmes across half of the region as a means of improving livelihoods. This project was implemented within those rural development areas and also outside the development zone, through two smallholder irrigation schemes. The total project area spanned all four ecological regions.

The project’s overall objective was to improve the productivity and farm income of small-scale farmers in rural communities. The project built on existing development programmes, identifying and correcting inherent weaknesses. Specific goals included:

• developing and maintaining smallholder irrigation to increase rice and vegetable production
• improving support services to farmers
• setting up a regulatory National Agricultural Marketing Board to establish an efficient fruit and vegetable marketing system
• developing a viable agricultural credit scheme for smallholders

The project was instrumental in focusing the government’s attention on the need to develop a policy and institutional framework to support small-scale farmers.

Source: IFAD