Rome, 9 April  2013 – A US$20 million loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to the Federative Republic of Brazil.

The loan agreement for the Semi-arid Sustainable Development Project was signed at IFAD headquarters today by Wilson Nunes Martins, Governor of the State of Piauí and Antonio Marques Porto e Santos, Permanent Representative of the Federative Republic of Brazil to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agencies in Rome, and Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of IFAD.

The IFAD project aims to reduce the levels of poverty and extreme poverty among rural women and men – with a particular focus on young people who live in the semi-arid region of Piauí. This will be done by increasing their employment opportunities, improving their income and strengthening the capacity of rural institutions. The project will cut across 89 municipalities to reach about 70,000 poor rural families. Many of the families are small-scale farmers whose livelihoods depend on farm and off-farm activities such as the production of honey, growing cashew nuts, raising goats and sheep, rural tourism and creating handicrafts.

Despite the poverty and environmental vulnerability in the region, it has the potential for economic development. The IFAD-supported project will promote training and assistance on the use of sustainable technologies such as an improved water conservation and agro-forestry systems. In addition, the project will enable participants to access financial services and short-term credit and provide small grants for farm-level investments.

With this new programme, the Fund will have financed nine programmes and projects in Brazil since 1980 for a total IFAD investment of $212 million, benefiting 220,000 households.

Press release No.: IFAD/18/2013
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) works with poor rural people to enable them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD has invested about US$14.8 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries through projects empowering over 400 million people to break out of poverty, thereby helping to create vibrant rural communities. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome – the United Nations' food and agriculture hub. It is a unique partnership of 172 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).