Agricultural Development Project II

Agricultural Development Project II

This project for agricultural development is a follow-up to the first Rural Development Project (RDP-I,) a seven-year project financed by the International Development Association, the British Overseas Development Administration and the Banque Arabe pour le développement economique en afrique. The objective of RDP-I, which closed in 1982, was to increase crop production. The Government of the Gambia requested IFAD’s assistance in this follow-up project.

Subsistence farmers were the main target of the Agricultural Development Project. While previous development efforts in the Gambia had focused on extending improving technology, integrating livestock and agriculture, and diversifying crops, the Agricultural Development Project addressed a need for more cost-effective services from the Ministry of Agriculture and a need to strengthen the input supply system.

An aim of the project was to reorganize agricultural extension services to upgrade village-level extension staff and provide for more effective, lower-cost services. Another was to reorganize cooperative societies to provide inputs, credit and crop marketing. The project also had the aim of developing stronger links among research, seed multiplication and extension activities, and it focused on reducing crop losses and expanding the use of animals for traction.

The project worked to consolidate progress made under the first rural development project and to address constraints that had emerged. An objective was to increase agricultural production of food crops and cash crops, which generate income. To achieve this objective, it worked to strengthen support institutions and to improve research and seed multiplication. Another important objective was to assist the government with major structural reforms.

Source: IFAD