National Agricultural Technology Project

National Agricultural Technology Project

Through this project, IFAD supports the government's strategy to increase agricultural productivity and the incomes of poor farmers. The project is improving the quality of national research and extension services, and making them more responsive to farmers' needs by ensuring that they are increasingly demand-driven. Activities address the general lack of improved technologies and the weakness of research and extension services.

The project intensifies and diversifies production systems and supports value chain development, directly benefiting members of farming communities and bringing indirect benefits for landless and other extremely poor people by creating an increased demand for labour. Because of widespread poverty and overall vulnerability of women, the project focuses on improving women's access to knowledge and technology.

By decentralizing extension services and sharing responsibilities for planning and implementation of activities, the project ensures the participation of poor rural people. Specifically, it encourages common interest groups of crop, livestock and fish farmers to form producers' organizations and federations. The groups have a key role in value chain development and in strengthening farmer-market linkages.

Source: IFAD