Agricultural Value Chains Support Project

The project’s goal is to improve the incomes and livelihoods of poor farm families in Senegal’s groundnut basin, where rural poverty has been spreading and deepening. The once-vibrant agricultural region has seen a steady economic decline as a result of the slump in world groundnut markets, climate change and continued degradation of the land. The region has a potential for agricultural diversification, but most small-scale farmers are unable to enter the markets that are opening up.

The aim of the project is to integrate farmers into profitable value chains based on local agroecological potential. Its most innovative feature is its focus on consolidating local value chains as instruments for fostering broad-based, self-sustaining and inclusive local development.

It will help small-scale producers, including highly vulnerable people, women and young people, develop profitable economic activities through direct contracting between their organizations and market operators. The project will strengthen grass-roots organizations and help all those involved in the value chains play an active role in dialogue at regional and national levels in order to obtain easier access to markets and a more equitable distribution of profits.

The target group includes three types of producers within the farming households:

• vulnerable small-scale farmers who have limited family labour, small and often degraded land holdings and a narrow range of income sources
• women and girls and their organizations
• underemployed young people aged 18 to 30

The project will also support market operators and others who can facilitate the entry of the target group into the selected value chains. The project gives priority to value chains on the basis of their potential profitability and their accessibility to poor farm families, women and young people.

Through a grant IFAD will provide funds for technical assistance, supporting value-chain development, knowledge management, monitoring and evaluation, and inclusion and gender equity.

IFAD will directly supervise the project through the Country Presence Office in Dakar, which will facilitate collaboration with other development partners in Senegal. The project will ensure wide access to information and the sharing of knowledge through the FIDAfrique regional network  and exchanges with other projects in the region.