Senegal and IFAD partner to promote climate resilient agriculture and rural entrepreneurship

22nd Dec 2018 | Source: IFAD

Over 43,700 vulnerable rural households in Senegal will benefit from a US$72.4 million programme that aims to improve food and nutrition security and incomes of smallholder crop and livestock farmers in four regions of Senegal.

The financing agreement for the Agricultural Development and Rural Entrepreneurship Programme – Phase II (PADAER-II) was signed by correspondence by Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD and, Amadou Ba, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Senegal.

The financing of the programme includes a $46.3 million loan and $0.5 million grant from IFAD. It will be cofinanced by an OPEC Fund for International Development grant ($10 million), the Government of Senegal ($9.5 million), the local communities and the beneficiaries themselves ($6.1 million).

In Senegal, the agriculture sector is extremely vulnerable to climate change. This in turn raises the vulnerability of poor rural people who depend on small farms for their food and income. PADAER-II will contribute to reducing poverty among the households in Kédougou, Kolda, Matam and Tambacounda regions by integrating them with profitable and diversified value chains.

The programme will develop production and marketing of rice, maize, fonio and small ruminants, and will help improve poultry breeding. In addition to these major agricultural value chains, it will support complementary products such as millet, sorghum and bananas.

The programme will improve hydro-agricultural systems, pastoral infrastructure and markets. It will also provide training to producers' organizations to enable them to provide sustainable services to their members. PADAER-II will help producers access credit and improve their knowledge of financial services, as well as strengthen the weather index-based insurance programme developed during PADAER-I.

PADAER-II aims to create permanent and well-paying jobs for rural people living in the programme area, and to ensure that at least 50 per cent of the programme's participants are women and 50 per cent are young people.

Since 1981, IFAD has financed 17 rural development programmes and projects in Senegal at a total cost of $514.2 million, with an IFAD investment of $269.1 million. These projects and programmes have directly benefited nearly 500,000 rural households.