Smallholder Services Rehabilitation Project

Smallholder Services Rehabilitation Project

The overall objective of this project was to help the cooperative movement improve services to its existing membership of small-scale farmers, and also to reach the poorest farmers and those living in remote areas. The project’s scope was national, but some activities focused on specific areas that are poor and drought-prone and suffer persistent food supply problems. In areas of Eastern and Luapula provinces, for example, when the stable crop of cassava was devastated by pests the population was left in extreme poverty. The goals of the project were to:

• expand and improve the agricultural services network to meet the needs of small-scale farmers more effectively
• increase the availability of agricultural supplies to small-scale farmers
• help marginal and subsistence farmers enter the market economy and improve their productivity, incomes, food security and standard of living
• tap underutilized resources in the small-scale farming sector and reduce national dependence on food imports

Source: IFAD