Inclusive Value Chain Development Project

A total of 285,600 farmers, particularly women and young people, in six regions of southern Mauritania will benefit from a project designed to improve food security and nutrition, increase the incomes of rural poor households, create jobs and reduce the country's dependence on food imports.

The Inclusive Value Chain Development Project (PRODEFI) will build upon IFAD's experience in the country and elsewhere in the region by adopting a poverty reduction approach based on supporting production and processing to respond to market demand. The first phase of the project will focus on horticulture, poultry farming, goat milk and non-timber forest products. Inland fishing will be tested around Lake Foum Gleita. Following market studies, new income-generating crops or activities will be defined for the second phase of the eight-year project. The farmers will receive training and advisory services to improve their production models and adapt them to climate change.

In that regard, the project will facilitate, through an Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) grant, the use of solar energy -- from production to storage and processing – and promote sustainable management techniques for natural resources such as water, pasturelands and seeds.  

In addition, to better match supply and demand, PRODEFI will develop an inclusive approach, promoting public-private-producers partnerships (4Ps) in the interest of smallholder farmers and facilitating their access to markets, which proved to be a very powerful pathway to reduce poverty in the previous IFAD supported project, Value Chains Development Programme for Poverty Reduction.

Source: IFAD