The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) announced support for a new programme in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to reduce poverty, increase productivity and incomes, improve food and nutrition security, and build the resilience of more than 410,000 small-scale farmers households.
DRC has the second-largest food crisis in the world, with 15.6 million people food insecure and 3.4 million children acutely malnourished. With small-scale producers grappling with climate change and COVID-19, food insecurity is expected to increase further in 2020. This threatens the livelihoods of millions of vulnerable Congolese.
To help the country address these issues, the financing agreement for the Inclusive and Resilient Rural Development Programme (PADRIR) was signed by correspondence by Sele Yalaghuli, Minister of Finance of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD.
This US$130.4 million programme will promote food crops such as cassava, rice and maize for climate-resilient value chain development, and groundnut, cowpea and soy to strengthen food and nutritional security. To diversify the income of small-scale farmers, PADRIR will encourage market gardening, fish farming, poultry breeding, beekeeping and livestock raising.
“Today, the country faces many challenges – Covid-19, Ebola and conflict – and these are impacting the livelihoods of vulnerable small-scale farmers,” said Valantine Achancho, IFAD Country Director for DRC. “IFAD is committed to working with the government to ensure that rural areas are not left behind, and PADRIR is an innovative and inclusive programme that will tackle the issue of rural poverty holistically, with particular attention to people with disabilities, and the Pygmy people. It will improve access to basic economic and social infrastructure in its areas of intervention”.
The programme will also promote the economic inclusion of small-scale farmers and value addition to agricultural products through processing. Rural infrastructure will be put in place to support market-oriented production, and to enable efficient delivery of surplus production from small farms to markets, allowing farmers to sell more and improve their livelihoods.
The programme funding includes a $26.6 million loan and $9.8 million grant from IFAD. In addition, the Government of DRC is providing $14.7 million, with a further $3.3 million contributed by beneficiaries themselves and international co-financiers and development partners have committed a total of US$75.9 million.
Original source: IFAD
Published on 03 July 2020
