Inclusive Value Chain Development Project

A total of 285,600 farmers, particularly women and young people, across six regions of southern Mauritania will benefit from PRODEFI. It is designed to improve food security and nutrition, increase the incomes of rural poor households, create jobs and reduce the country's dependence on food imports.

The Inclusive Value Chain Development Project (PRODEFI) will build upon IFAD's experience in Mauritania and elsewhere in the region by adopting a poverty reduction approach based on supporting production and processing to respond to market demand. The first phase of the project will focus on horticulture, poultry farming, goat milk and non-timber forest products. Inland fishing will be tested around Lake Foum Gleita. Following market studies, new income-generating crops or activities will be defined for the second phase of this eight-year project. Beneficiaries will receive training and advisory services to improve their production models and help them adapt to climate change.

Through an Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) grant, the project will also facilitate the widespread use of solar energy, from production to storage and processing, as well as promote sustainable management techniques for natural resources such as water, pasturelands and seeds.  

In addition, to better match supply and demand, PRODEFI will develop an inclusive approach, especially through promoting public-private-producer partnerships in the interest of facilitating smallholder farmers' access to markets. This had proved to be a powerful method for reducing poverty in the previous IFAD-supported project, the Value Chains Development Programme for Poverty Reduction.