Community Development Project for the Rio Gaviao Region

Community Development Project for the Rio Gaviao Region

The Rio Gaviao region is traversed from south to east by the Gaviao River. The area alternates hilly and flat highlands, and the climate ranges from tropical humid to semi-arid. Unlike other regions of the North-East, it has almost no landless or nearly landless rural families. Landholdings tend to be larger than average but productivity is low because of poor soils and the dry climate. Rural poverty is widespread and the area has the worst health and infant mortality rates in Bahia.

The main objective of the project is to raise incomes and improve living conditions, especially nutritional intake, for poor rural communities, as part of an environmentally sustainable development strategy. The fact that landholdings are larger means that there is good potential for agricultural and rural development. The project is designed to transform subsistence and low-income farms into profitable and market-oriented small enterprises, and to support other income-generating activities. The project places particular emphasis on development for rural women. Specific strategies are to:

• strengthen or create rural grass-roots organizations with linkages to state and municipal governments and NGOs
• improve productivity of traditional crops and introduce alternative higher income crops
• improve irrigation and provide training and new technologies to minimize risk of drought
• improve community infrastructure

The project has demonstrated how important it is for public and private sectors to join forces to address infrastructure issues. As a result of the success of this project, the Government of the State of Bahia and the IFAD Latin America and the Caribbean Division will enter upon a second phase of the project (see the Rural Communities Development Project in the Poorest Areas of the State of Bahia). The new project will scale up successful development and poverty reduction experiences in a new operation covering the poorest rural municipalities in the State of Bahia.

Source: IFAD