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Visita FIDA a Oaxaca

September 12, 2014, 5:05 am
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Written by Mariana Castro Álvarez

Kanayo F. Nwanze, el Presidente del FIDA
©IFAD/Katie Taft
Durante el mes de julio, el señor Kanayo F. Nwanze, el Presidente del Fondo Internacional de Desarrollo Agrícola (FIDA), y su equipo de dedicados especialistas en temas para América Latina  y el Caribe viajaron a la Ciudad de México.

La agenda del viaje versó sobre diferentes actividades, sobre las cuales resaltan las reuniones con algunos de los representantes de Alto Nivel del gobierno Mexicano dedicados a la Agricultura, Hacienda, Desarrollo Social y asuntos forestales.

Además, se presentó un estudio regional sobre la agricultura familiar en América Latina, elaborado conjuntamente entre Centro Latinoamericano para el Desarrollo Rural (RIMISP) y el FIDA.
Parte de la misión consistió en una visita de campo a Oaxaca, en la que el sr. Nwanze, junto con delegados de la Comisión Nacional Forestal, visitaron un grupo de mujeres que han recibido capacitación en la producción de seda, en la sierra norte de dicho Estado mexicano. "Creemos que la población rural es parte de la solución a los problemas del mundo", mencionó el Presidente del FIDA. "Cuando las inversiones se han dirigido a las zonas rurales, hemos observado una y otra vez que las personas se han visto empoderadas para cultivar más alimentos, poner en marcha sus propios negocios, mejorar la nutrición de sus hijos y enviarlos a la escuela. Hemos visto como mujeres y hombres de las zonas rurales transforman sus comunidades".
Tejedoras de seda Oaxaca
©IFAD/Mariana Castro Álvarez

Junto al Fondo para el Medio Ambiente Mundial y en asociación con la Comisión Nacional Forestal, FIDA financia en México un proyecto que está creando nuevos sistemas de aprovechamiento forestal sostenible y de fijación de carbono, al tiempo que introduce programas para el fomento de emprendimientos rurales, gracias a los cuales la población de las comunidades Santo Domingo Xagacía y Santa María Yalina se han visto beneficiados.

El proyecto con las mujeres de Santo Domingo Xagacía, está enfocado principalmente a la capacitación en la producción de seda, un proceso heredado de generación en generación, que además de su potencial para la generación de ingresos, contribuye a preservar la cultura local. A pesar de que esta es una región en la cual la pobreza extrema afecta a más de la mitad de la población, el Presidente del FIDA comentó que "las desigualdades pueden eliminarse si nos damos cuenta hasta qué punto las zonas urbanas y las rurales son interdependientes".

©IFAD/Mariana Castro Álvarez
Por su parte, Josefina Stubbs, Directora de la División de América Latina y el Caribe de FIDA, quien también participó en la visita de campo, hizo énfasis sobre la importancia de  coordinar los diferentes recursos que se destinan a las comunidades, para poder así lograr el mayor impacto posible en el desarrollo rural, en este caso de las mujeres productoras de seda.

“Hay que ver cuál es la manera de hacer al producto menos costoso y de calidad homogénea, para que pueda tener un mayor mercado (…) y mantener en la mente la importancia de conversar con algunas tiendas en Oaxaca o en la Ciudad de México, para ofrecerles la compra de prendas elaboradas con el mismo trabajo de las mujeres, el cual es de excelente calidad, mencionó Josefina Stubbs. Asismismo, comentó sobre un programa regional de apoyo a emprendimientos de mujeres rurales, el cual es financiado por el FIDA y ejecutado a través de ONU Mujeres.

©IFAD/Mariana Castro Álvarez
Como parte de la agenda de trabajo, el equipo de FIDA visitó también la comunidad de Santa María Yalina, en la que seis jóvenes han puesto en marcha un pequeño negocio de venta de carbón vegetal.
Ahí se pudo constatar la viabilidad que tienen los negocios rurales liderados por jóvenes, con un enfoque de aprovechamiento sostenible de los recursos naturales. “El éxito de las poblaciones rurales depende de cuán bien estén organizadas. La estructura organizativa es sumamente importante para lograr cohesión, trabajar conjuntamente y diseñar planes de negocios que luego puedan generar mayores ganancias”, comentó el Presidente del FIDA con los jóvenes empresarios.

Al finalizar la visita, el sr. Nwanze recalcó: "Si las economías rurales no son dinámicas, las personas continuarán migrando hacia las ciudades en busca de trabajo. Necesitamos un mundo en el que la población, el empleo, los servicios y las oportunidades estén distribuidos de forma más equilibrada".

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The Sixth South-South Cooperation Workshop Highlights in Maputo, Mozambique

September 12, 2014, 5:53 am
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Written by Miriam Cherogony

The 6th China-Mozambique-IFAD South-South Cooperation workshop held in Maputo, Mozambique on 4-8 August 2014 conference focused on three important policy reforms in China that resulted in unblocking agricultural development and the China Africa Development Fund (CADFund).

The policy reforms focused on Chinese agricultural policy and impacts, agribusiness reform and mechanization, and research and development.  The progress in the Chinese agricultural policy and impacts was presented by Prof Zhang Xiaoshan. Various agricultural policies reforms enabled China to put in place incentives for smallholder farmers. The aim was to increase their participation in the agricultural sector development through improved property rights. The result has been an increase in grain production and incomes for farmers. The paper elicited an interesting discussion on the similarities of the challenges faced by China and Africa in rural urban migration and small parcels of land and property rights. The other was to understand how China has managed to change but Africa has not been able to change. The policies are in place but the difference is in the implementation of these policies in Africa.

Participants follow Discussions
©IFAD

The agribusiness reforms and agricultural modernization in China was presented by Prof Zhang Xiaoshan.  Although there existed diversified patterns on achieving China’s agricultural modernization, the policy makers favored the development of specialized households based on family farming and regarded it as mainstream in the agricultural management system. The households were encouraged to form cooperatives or associations. This enabled farmers to enter into secondary and tertiary industry and gain added value through the marketing and processing of their primary products. The mixed and diversified agricultural production system will continue to exist in China’s agriculture these are also inter-connected with China’s urbanization and industrialization process. This will inevitably influence the reform direction of rural land tenure system and rural governance structure. The key issue during this development is how to protect the interests of small farming households and protect the scarce resources of arable land, water and protect the environment. The plenary discussion centered on the weaknesses in the cooperative model on governance and management and this remain a challenge in China as well.

Investment in agricultural research and development was presented by Dr Chen Qianheng. The paper explained why the public sector is the main financier for R&D. R&D is a public good and returns take a very long time to realize. The investment in agriculture research comprises about 0.5% in China’s GDP, lower than the world’s average level (1%). In china, there are 2 million enterprises but only a few large-scale or technology-oriented enterprises are engaged in agricultural R&D. The future of agriculture technology is in the area of biotechnology, water saving technologies, agricultural mechanization and precision agriculture. In all OECD countries, modern agriculture focus mainly on high efficiency and competitiveness of agriculture, food security and increase in farmer’s incomes. The plenary discussions centered on private sector involvement in R&D; how farmers can participate in R&D and how R&D can be revamped to bolster productivity. The discussions drew on the similarities on R&D and how to make R&D relevant for the stakeholders to invest in it.

The China Africa Development Fund (CADFund) was presented by Henry Liu. In 2006, at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the President Hu Jintao announced the establishment of CADFund to encourage and support Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa. It has four offices in Africa namely Johannesburg, South Africa; Lusaka, Zambia; Accra, Ghana; and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Fund determines investment terms according to the industrial features, return on investment, risks, exit timing and approaches etc. of the projects.  Investment term of the Fund towards a single project is mainly 5 - 8 years, and will not exceed 10 years in principle. On a single project the Fund can invest USD5-50 million. It has 78 projects worth USD2.9 billion with a specific fund for Lusophone countries; Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique. The CADFund is supporting the Wanbao project through a loan of USD60 million from China Development bank and equity of USD58 million (49%) from CADFund and USD60 million (51%) from Wanbao Enterprise joint venture of USD200 million. The CADFund signed a memorandum of understanding with IFAD in 2007. Now they are working on the modalities to link to the IFAD operating model and develop a CADFund-IFAD partnership.

The motives for China’s enterprises’ Overseas Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) in agriculture are very complex. It cannot be attributed to a single factor motive such as land grabbing overseas. The Chinese argued that so far, only a very small part of the agricultural products grown abroad was taken to China. A large portion is sold in the local market or exported to third markets. Therefore, China’s OFDI in agriculture has little impact on guaranteeing China’s food security. Most imported agricultural products from Africa are non-food items, including cotton, hemp, silk, oilseeds and other such products. The Chinese admit that China’s firms compete with local growers and some enterprises do not have a strong awareness of environmental protection and social responsibility but this is not the whole story. It is important to note that China’s enterprises’ agricultural OFDI increased agricultural investment, employment and expanded the supply of agricultural products in the local market of the host country. In the long run, the presence of China’s firms with advanced technology will benefit competition: through the expansion of local supplies while providing cheaper technologies that can be adapted and adopted by local farmers. China’s enterprises’ agricultural OFDI is win-win for the host country and China.

With the rising demand for food in China and the world, more and more Chinese enterprises will venture out. In order to eliminate anxiety about land grabbing from local farmers, Chinese companies should choose the suitable mode of agricultural OFDI. Deborah and Tang (2009) pointed out: “Any efforts by foreigners to produce on a large scale are likely to continue to be controversial. Systems of outgrowing, where farmers maintain control over their own land but have incentives to produce under contract to a central company, could be a middle ground.” Considering many host countries’ food insecurity, China’s companies can come to some agreement with the host country government on the share of land output. In order to benefit local agricultural firms more, China’s firms can set up co-operative enterprise or joint venture with local company to produce agricultural products. The discussion focused on land grabbing and environmental impact assessment citing the scale of these investments. The win-win strategy at the moment seems to favour China and needs to be revisited in terms of cross cultural issues, value addition of raw products, further technical assistance to improve governance and ownership, and more trade between China and Africa.

The strategy for agricultural development in Mozambique was presented by Mr Adriano Ubisse. Mozambique has a population of 24 million. Agriculture is fundamental for food security and economic development. The focus is on increasing production and area and improving the genetics. The strategy is linked to CAADP and PRSP to create competitive and sustainable agriculture, access to markets, food security, and ensure social equality. The initiative has four pillars: (i) increasing agricultural productivity and production; (ii) access to markets for improvement; (iii) sustainable natural resource; and (iv) strengthen institutions. The implementation is focusing on three corridors; (i) Nagala corridor in the north (ii) Beira Corridor in the central and (iii) Limpopo corridor in the south. This is coupled with the technical centres in each of these areas to support the development of the corridors. The participants will visit some of these technical centres during the field visits.

The IFAD Mozambique investment was presented by Mr Cândido Jaque, Directorate of Investment and Cooperation, Mozambique. IFAD began operations in Mozambique in 1983 and has provided more than US$200 million in financing for 12 programmes and projects in the country. Currently there are five on-going projects – PRONEA (supports the government's National Programme for Agricultural Extension); PROSUL (improve the climate-smart livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the Maputo and Limpopo corridors), a small EU project that focus on MDGs; ProPESCA (support to artisanal fisheries), and PROMER (supporting the Markets). The Chinese cooperation is focusing on Maize, Cotton, and Rice as well as development of the research centres.

The PROMER presentation on the development of markets was done by Ms Carla Honwana.  Agriculture is the main source of income in rural Mozambique. She mentioned that the project is driven by a reference committee in the various regions with representatives of public, private, civil society and farmers. The projects support (i) extension services focused on market access to advise the smallholder farmers to produce according to market demand; (ii) production and quality; (ii) adult education; iii) support to rural traders, access to financial services through savings and association groups; and iv) support market information systems which include prices, products, etc. The programme is supporting knowledge management in its parent ministry, DNPDR to ensure the Ministry has ownership of the lessons learned.

The Wanbao Project was presented by Mr Armando Ussivane, Chairman of Agriculture Sector Strategic Plan (PEDSA). In Mozambique there is a total of three million hectares of irrigated land. The demand for rice is 550,000 tonnes with only 300,000 tonnes produced locally, leaving a gap of 250,000 tones to meet.  This led to the development of the Wanbao project or PEDSA. It has three objectives namely: (i) increase production and productivity; (ii) access to markets; and (iii) sustainable national resource management. In 2007 there was a twinning arrangement with China for technological transfer, and value addition in storage and processing.

Before the project, the main problems have been (i) poor land preparation; (ii) use of low branching variety of rice (yield 6 tonnes/ha); (iii) direct planning which uses a lot of seed; and (iv) poor control of water. The technological transfer will address these problems by (i) focusing on land levelling; (ii) use of high branching variety (12 tonnes/ha); (iii) use of pre-germinated seed when planting (35kg/ha) and (iv) regular control of water. The lower Limpopo irrigation project is worth USD250 million with irrigation infrastructure costing USD113 million. The approach is a private public producer partnerships arrangement targeting direct support to small-scale farmers and partial support (50% start-up) to emergent farmers who own 5-10 hectares. The project is on course to achieving the target set on the irrigated area; at the moment it has achieved 8,000ha. There was a number of cross cultural issues and adjustments (Chinese and Mozambican) that needed to be addressed for the project to remain on course.
Rice Drying Facilities at Wanbao Project
©IFAD

Discussion on what can be improved on the China-Africa agricultural cooperation:

  • China needs to hear the African voice in terms of ownership of the decision at all levels and demand driven strategies in order to have common understanding on both sides
  • Improve on the cross cultural understanding on win-win and there is need to borrow what works well in both cultures
  • China should set up factories in Africa to produce the technologies in Africa to increase cost effectiveness  
  • China needs to change the mindset on the view of Chinese technologies by providing after sale service and the technologies should be simple, adaptable and affordable to the African farmers 
  • China should provide information on the technologies available and the price ranges of the technologies for different markets
  • The trade imbalance between Africa (Exports 2.8 billion) and China (imports 2.5 billion) should be improved and there is need for preferential trade agreements to increase trade e.g. add value to the technologies in Africa and value addition for the raw materials that China imports
  • China should provide additional technical assistance to support the countries from USD30 million to assist in the development of investment policies to support the cooperation  


What can Africa do?

  • African countries need to avoid supply driven development through the review of investment policies, identification of financial needs, and allocation of budget to the cooperation 
  • Every country should have a clear entry strategy for the cooperation which highlights what is required to be shared with development partners.This should include land issues, human resource capacities and other gaps that need to be addressed in the cooperation 
  • Improve research extension linkage to enable technological transfer to be speeded up in the host country  
  • Improve Africa's participation and engagement in the cooperation and learn from the Nigerian example of active participation in the cooperation for a common cross cultural understanding on the win-win strategies 
  • More access to information on Chinese technologies provided through Government, set up demonstration of these technologies (include TORs of consultants, specifications, etc.), and strengthen the bureaus of standards to reinforce on standards   
  • There is need for a centralized information on the development partners investment requirements 
  • Government should encourage private sector involvement in the agricultural sector through enabling policies to encourage them into the sector.
  • Understand and improve the quality of agricultural products to meet the requirements for the Chinese markets. 

The importance of the south-south cooperation to IFAD was explained in the presentation of the scaling up agenda by Mr Cheik Sourang, Strategy and Knowledge Management. This presentation showed south-south triangular cooperation as an entry point for improved efficiency and impact at scale in agriculture and rural development. He mentioned the pathways, drivers and spaces for scaling up. He emphasized on the need for more systematic and proactive approaches, in order to reap the benefits of scale through learning, replication and partnerships. A learning event on the south-south and triangular cooperation will be hosted by IFAD on 12 September 2014 in Rome, Italy.

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Reintegration of ex-combatants through agriculture in Côte d’Ivoire: PROPACOM project

September 16, 2014, 4:46 am
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A photo blogpost by Mariajose Silva Vargas

An ex-combatant waiting to receive inputs for production in Korhogo, Côte d’Ivoire.  © IFAD/Mariajose Silva Vargas
My name is Mariajose Silva Vargas, I am a Bolivian national currently finishing my internship in the Office of the President and Vice-President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Furthermore, I just graduated from Ghent University in Belgium with an International Master of Science in Rural Development (IMRD) degree.

In June 2014 I went to four different cities in Côte d’Ivoire to collect data for my master's dissertation and for this reason, I visited the IFAD Projet d'appui à la Production Agricole et à la Commercialisation (PROPACOM). Specifically, I met with a special cluster of the project's beneficiaries: the ex-combatants.

Indeed, the country’s last civil conflict ended in 2011, and nowadays there are around 74.000 ex-combatants that need to be reintegrated into the socio-economic life. Thus, IFAD is assisting the Authority of Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration (ADDR) by forming, supporting and installing 2000 ex-combatants into the agro-pastoral sector.

 “The project's objective is to integrate ex-combatants, because they had nothing after the two crises. After years of fighting they had to go back to their life,”  said Mr Pierre Soro Seydou, coordinator of the PROPACOM team in Bouaké.

Ex-combatant and his family work in the field near Ferkessédougou, Côte d’Ivoire.   © IFAD/Mariajose Silva Vargas
During the first days of my visit, I was very nervous: indeed, I wondered how to talk to them or ask them about their life after the war, since inevitably the reintegration of ex-combatants is a very delicate issue. Nevertheless, when I met them, their communities and families, they were all very kind and available to answer all of my questions. Therefore, during our conversations, they explained to me that today they just want to take care of their families, and this is one of the main motives why they want to become farmers.

The children in an ex-combatant’s community in Ferkessédougou, Côte d’Ivoire.  © IFAD/Mariajose Silva Vargas
Consequently with the project, the ex-combatants and their communities receive training to start or to return to work in the agricultural sector. In fact, many of them were already farmers before the first crisis in 2002. Indeed, Mr Yefarguia Kone, one of the former fighters said to me:

“I was born in agriculture, before the war I was also a farmer”

In any case, with the training they also learn new techniques to increase the production, such as methods to process cassava into manioc, or shea nuts into shea butter. For them, the formation is essential for many reasons, such as to improve the quality of their production or enhance social cohesion with other people.

Mr Yefarguia Kone explaining facts to me in the field,  Côte d’Ivoire.  © IFAD/Mariajose Silva Vargas
“ After the formation I have found many things that have helped me to improve my everyday
life. Really, the formation have donated me many things, especially techniques in the
agriculture,” said Mr Yefarguia Kone.

A woman from the community producing shea butter, Côte d’Ivoire.  © IFAD/Mariajose Silva Vargas
Likewise, with the programme they get inputs to start production and they also receive further assistance to connect their communities to markets. For instance, Mr Nakoudjana Silue, one of the beneficiaries, got a tricycle to transport the food and sell it in town marketplaces. 

Mr Nakoudjana Silue got a tricycle to transport food to the markets, Côte d’Ivoire.   © IFAD/Mariajose Silva Vargas
 From my point of view, this project is a perfect example of the multi-functionality of agriculture, or in other words, that it can solve many issues in rural areas apart from producing food and fibre: it provides employment; it assures social inclusion of the most vulnerable people; and it can even provide social security and protection.

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IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze visits IFAD supported projects in Ethiopia

September 21, 2014, 6:53 am
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IFAD President  with members of Edget Cooperative a register member of Yetsanet
Fana Union supported by IFAD supported RUFIP in Butajira, Ethiopia.
On the heels of the African Green Revolution Forum, the IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze took the opportunity to visit IFAD supported Projects in Southern Ethiopia, traveling to Butajira in the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples region and Arata Chufa in Oromia Region.

The IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze traveled to Ethiopia to make an inaugural opening speech on 3rd September 2014. During the opening speech he urged for investment in the agricultural sector as a means for economic growth to transform the lives of the rural poor and particularly engaging the youth; “Yes many African economies are growing strongly, but too often this is on the back of extractive industries that do not yield jobs and income for Africa’s poor and hungry,” he said.

The AGRF brought together 1,000 agriculture officials, farmers, entrepreneurs, scientists, civil society organizations and pioneers in agribusiness representing 60 countries to discuss how the African continent may successfully launch and sustain a Green Revolution. Closing the conference Former President of Ghana concluded that it was time for less talk and more action, “Africa is ready to catch up with the rest of the world,” he said. To pave a way forward H.E. Tumusiime remarked, “Discussions this week at AGRF are an important step towards the actions we must take collectively to accelerate agricultural transformation in Africa.”

The IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze at the IFAD exhibition stand with IFAD staff 
who participated in the African Green Revolution Forum.
Before the opening the President had the opportunity to travel to Butajira and Arata Chufa to meet the beneficiaries of IFAD support supported projects and see first-hand how the Fund’s investments are transforming their livelihoods. In Butajira he interacted with members of Edget Cooperative, which is a registered member of Yetsana Fana Cooperative Union that has received financial management trainings and a credit loan to bolster its services for its 108 cooperative members under the second phase of the Rural Financial Intermediary Programme. Women play a strong leadership role in the 290 members strong Edget Cooperative. Almost half the members are women headed households and all but one of the members of the governing committee are women.

Kibe Kamere shared her experience of taking of 15,000 Birr (USD 750) and raising 3,000 Birr (USD 150) through her savings to purchase a dairy cow.  “I am not going to borrow in the future without a financial plan,” she told the IFAD President, while sharing her future investment plans.

Members shared their personal experiences of taking loans to launch small enterprises and to develop their farming activities. Loans have been used to invest in activities such as, rearing small ruminates, to purchase inputs (seeds and fertilizers) for their farms and to launch dairy processing activities. The President commended their efforts, encouraging them to continue to invest with their business plans in mind, ensuring to better the livelihoods of their families.

The IFAD President also visited Bati Futo marketing group that was established by the Agricultural Marketing Improvement Programme. The project established the 150 member strong marketing group providing them with training on basic marketing. Members have been able to qualify for loans from OMO micro-finance institution (MFI) that is supported by the project credit fund. A majority of members took loans to purchase animal drawn cart or to purchase boxes to transport their produce, tomatoes, fruits and onions to the market. While discussing the challenges the farmers continue to face to access markets, he emphasized that IFAD hopes to focus its future investments in Ethiopia to create better access to markets and the lessons learned while implementing AMIP will contribute to strengthening future efforts.

Delmanash a member of Bati Futu marketing cooperative explained that since she joined Bati Futo marketing group she is now; aware of market prices in surrounding areas, able to sell her produce when the price is most beneficial and can now easily transport her produce to the market by using wooden boxes and an animal drawn cart that she purchased through a loan funded by the Agricultural Marketing Improvement Programme.
The IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze addresses Bati Futo marketing cooperative members
The final visit was to Arata Chufa, where the IFAD President viewed a Participatory Small Scale Irrigation Development Programme scheme. The IFAD President had the opportunity to discuss with farmers how they have managed to successfully market their produce from irrigated small-scale farms. The 100 hectare scheme established 14 years ago under IFAD supported Special Country Programme phase one is managed by a water user association of 324 members. The WUA, which is a registered irrigation cooperative serves as a platform to encourage beneficiaries to collaborate and jointly improve their farming practices, working together to overcome hurdles they face while adapt irrigation technologies.

IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze is welcomed by the Arata Chufa water user association that manages a 100 hectare irrigation scheme supported by the IFAD supported Participatory Small Scale Irrigation Development Programme in Ethiopia.

Melake Zige the Chairperson of Arata Chufa water user association (r) discusses their annual work plan and expected profits from the irrigation scheme with the IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze (c)

Before the Arata Chufa scheme was established Medina Hamzino Hamdinot used to grow wheat in her 0.25 hectare land only enough for her subsistence. She has now introduced sugar cane and potatoes onto her farm enabling her to is gain 20,000 Bir (USD 1000) per harvest.

Joseph Bayena a model farmer and former chairperson of the Arata Chufa WUA in 2004.  Over ten years he has expanded his 0.25 hectare farm to 10 hectares by investing gains from his harvest of tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and beans.

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There is no 'Planet B'

September 24, 2014, 5:17 am
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By: Gernot Laganda


The eyes of the world are on the UN Secretary General's Climate Summit in New York. Over 120 heads of state are roaming the halls of the UN building, telling the world about their perspectives, actions and intentions on climate change. Although some key players are missing, such as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, most commentators have good things to say about this Summit. The strategy of the UN Secretary General to request 'bold and decisive action' has clearly left a mark - the announcements countries have made at this Summit to date have mostly been substantive (overview).

In the past, most speeches at this kind of event were simply acknowledging climate change as a defining problem of the 21st Century and inferring that some urgent action is needed. This approach may have helped countries to delay several complex and uncomfortable reforms, such as the phasing-out of fossil fuel subsidies or the taxing of carbon pollution, but it has also led to a huge aggregate delay on concrete global climate action. The inconvenient truth about greenhouse gas emissions, however,  is that they do not stop at national boundaries. As more extreme weather events are being recorded in all parts of the world, more and more alarm bells from climate scientists (IPCC AR5), think tanks (WRI's The Climate Change Connection to U.S. Public Health) and civil society groups are starting to ring. The climate march in New York City last Saturday is a good example: Over 400,000 people took to the streets, many with signs saying ‘There is no Planet B’.

At this week's UN Climate Summit, one cannot help but notice that the tone of some of the country statements has changed. Many countries have had an opportunity to reflect on their own experiences with climate disasters, from floods to droughts to wildfires and tropical storms. US President Obama referred to many recent examples in his statement, concluding that 'we are the first generation who is experiencing the impacts of climate change, and also the last generation that can do anything about it'.  This got amplified by other prominent commentators who shared their frustration about the fact that green technologies are ready to go to scale at affordable prices, but there is still too little political drive and inertia in the status quo to make transformational progress.

For an organisation such as IFAD, which is championing the cause of smallholder adaptation at this Summit, this event has confirmed that we are among the fastest and most decisive movers on climate action. IFAD’s flagship programme for climate change adaptation is only two years young, but keeps getting recognized by donors and agriculture ministers from around the world as one of the most tangible examples of climate action. In 2015, at the 21st Conference of Parties of the UN Climate Change Convention, we hope to realize that our efforts in the field of climate change adaptation are met by equally decisive actions on emission reductions.  
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Agricultural Marketing Improvement Programme Photo Blog

September 29, 2014, 7:19 am
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The Agricultural Market Improvement Programme (AMIP) an IFAD supported project implemented since 2006 recently closed in July 2014. The seven year project funded by an IFAD loan contribution of USD 35.1 million and the contribution of USD 7.9 million by the Government of Ethiopia aims to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of agricultural marketing for farmers in Ethiopia. Recently an IFAD supervision team undertook a closing mission for the project, this is a photo blog of activities they viewed.  

AMIP has developed processing, storage and transport technologies to reduce post-harvest crop losses and increase farmers’ returns, thus empowering 500,000 smallholder farmers to engage in and exploit emerging market opportunities.  he project has trained 412,758 farmers and agro-pastoralist on basic marketing for a range of agricultural products. Strengthening the marketing and post-harvest technology extension support that farmers receive, the project trained 4,003 experts and 8,340 Government development workers and cooperative promotion agents. Establishing and supporting 1,384 marketing groups, the project was able to identify potential markets for these groups consequently supporting them to pursue joint marketing plans.

The project also established a credit-line of USD970, 000 disbursed by the Federal Bank of Ethiopia to micro-finance institutions (MFIs). As a result, farmers have been able to apply for loans by using group collateral thus enabling small holder farmers to gain access to post-harvest technologies such as; coffee hand pulpier, fruit & vegetable boxes, processing & packing machines, milk handling and processing technologies amongst many other technologies. This is a photo blog to share the results of the project AMIP.

AMIP established Bati Futo marketing group, in Butajira woreda in Southern Ethiopia. The group has 150 members who have received training through the project on basic agricultural marketing practices.
Within Bati Fitu marketing group, 31 members have been able to access  AMIP supported post-harvest loans disbursed by Omo Micro-Finance Institution (MFI). Farmers in Bati Futu  marketing group is beneficial because individuals are then able to qualify for loans through group collateral. They are able to buy animal drawn carts or Garis that cost up to Birr 3000 (USD 150) enabling them to transport good to the market.  


"Once I took a loan to buy storage crates, I found the boxes very useful to store the produce at home and to transport it, we now have good standards and quantities of tomatoes to sell at the market,"Mussama Jemal, a member of Bati Futo marketing goup told us. Jemal is able to grow at least two crops a year on his small plot of about 30 by 50 meters and he grows tomatoes and onions, harvesting up to 50 creates of tomatoes of 50kg each.

Providing loans to Cooperatives and Rural Savings and Credit Organizations and their Unions beneficiaries are able to jointly process their goods and sell their products in the market. Individuals are also encouraged to save and make investments to launch enterprises and undertake value addition to gain better prices for their goods.

Areka primary cooperative with 447 members, of which 175 are female, took an AMIP funded loan of Birr 400,000 (USD 20,000)  from Omo MFI to construct a coffee washing station and to purchase a coffee pulpier that removes pulp and husks of the coffee. With support from government extension workers, the cooperative has received training to license and improve the quality of their jointly washed and dried coffee that is now sold for a better price of 91 Birr/Kg (USD 4.5 per kg) compared to 56 Birr/kg  (USD 2.80 per kg) due to improves handling and processing that adds value to their coffee beans.  



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Monitoring Increasing Salinity of the Mekong Delta

October 2, 2014, 7:10 am
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Written by Jessica Morgan, based on paper by Guido Rutten

IFAD has initiated a programme to develop a monitoring and early warning system to combat the increasing salinity levels of the Mekong Delta.

The Mekong Future Project - First draft report on the
hydrological simulation.
To Quang Toan, Nguyen Hieu Trung, Dang Kieu Nhan.
At the mouth of the Mekong, salty seawater rushes inland to mingle with the fresh water. This balance between fresh and saltwater is crucial to the ecosystems that inhabit the area, however with increasing water extraction of freshwater upstream and rising sea levels downstream the careful balance is tipping. Saltwater is now moving further up the Mekong estuary with devastating effects.
Natural ecosystems and human activities are dependent on the salinity balance within the delta. As freshwater is becoming scarce, management of the delta system is focused on protecting freshwater sources through heavy infrastructure. However, this is largely unsustainable and IFAD is attempting to move to an adaptation strategy. Examples include adjusting cropping calendars and introducing saline tolerant rice.

However, the basis for creating a successful adaptation system is reliable knowledge. Farmers need access to accurate information systems to determine when the water will be at its most saline or at its freshest. Also people, such as irrigation system managers, need to know when to open and close floodgates and where and when new infrastructure investments are required. This knowledge is essential to accommodate adaptation needs.

However to put this into practice is quite a challenge. Monitoring salinity is not an easy task in an estuary. The Mekong Delta consists of a variety of different rivers, irrigation systems, drainage canals, dikes and floodgates. Consequently water flow is varied resulting in a patchy distribution of salinity levels. The tidal nature of the delta also increases high variation in readings making interpretation of data extremely difficult.

To make matters worse, there is currently no shared base of knowledge for the various stakeholders. This can lead to a lack of knowledge among  people such as smallholder farmers, who usually are the individuals most affected by the increasing salinity.

The Adaptation in the Mekong Delta (AMD) project will develop a joint and open access salinity monitoring and early warning system aimed at all user levels of the Delta. It will be installed in two provinces: Ben Tre and Tra Vinh, with the intention of scaling up to the entire mouth of the Mekong in the future.

The system will make near-real-time information available through a web platform, as well as through a text messaging service (SMS) for farmers. It will use manual data from individual farmers at field-level and automated data from monitoring stations to produce the most accurate results. This system will be fully open access, meaning that everyone can can access the data at no charge. Though the main focus is on salinity information, selected automated stations will also monitor water quality variables to enable improved environmental management.

Achieving consistent, reliable and timely information to relevant stakeholders is the primary objective of the system. The secondary objective is the building up of historical data which can allow researchers to detect trends and make long-term forecasts, which will subsequently feed into the planning process. This data when linked with an upstream river information system can in the future enable real-time short-term (hours to a few days) forecasting.

The key to this operation working successfully is co-operation and communication between the different stakeholders. Therefore they will all be closely involved with the development of the system and their comments and input will be included within the programme design.

Read more about IFAD's Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme.

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Growing more food and using less water while preserving the natural environment in Guanghe County, China

October 8, 2014, 7:32 am
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Written by the Gansu PPMO team

Plastic mulching is an agricultural technology used to retain soil moisture, reduce weeds and raise soil temperatures. Plastic is stretched over raised vegetable beds and holes are punched into the plastic sheeting to make room for seeds or seedlings. In Guanghe County, located between the Loess and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in Gansu Province, plastic mulching has been extensively adopted in upland crop farming. 
 
Lan Cuiren, 71, is a farmer in Huinin County, Gansu Province, China. In this area, plastic mulching has not been used. ©IFAD/Qilai Shen

The area suffers from limited rainfall and low temperatures during the spring planting season and plastic mulching has proved beneficial. In 2013, plastic mulching was used to cultivate over 356,000 mu (approximately 23,730 hectares) for 300,000 mu of corn and 56,000 mu of potato crops. According to the provincial agriculture department, the average yield of fully mulched corn reached 834.3 kg/mu, which is 36% higher than a half mulched cornfield, and the average yield of fully mulched potato registered 3085.3 kg/mu, an increase of 51.5% than growing potatoes in an open field. As a result of the widespread use of plastic mulching, the per capita income of farmers was increased on average by 1,272.7 CNY (approximately US$207) in 2013.
The increase in crop yield and farmers’ incomes also means farmers’ increased use of plastic sheeting – which is a source of environmental pollution. The Guanghe County Agriculture Bureau estimated that over 2,000 tons of plastic sheeting is used each year and this figure is increasing. Large amounts of plastic were discarded at the end of each harvest and this plastic was severely polluting the rural environment and the farming landscape. A substantial amount of plastic scraps were left in the soil, causing soil compaction and the resulting reduced land productivity. Some farmers even burned the used plastic, causing secondary pollution to the atmosphere. In 2011 there was no effective way of recycling the used plastic sheeting.


Landscape view of terraced hillside where plastic mulching is used, Guanghe County, Gansu Province, China. 
©Gansu PPMO

The pollution caused by discarded plastic sheets became know as “white pollution” and it had become a big headache for farmers and local government officials. In 2011, the implementation of the IFAD/GEF project: Integrated Ecosystem Management Approach to the Conservation of Biodiversity in Dryland Ecosystems brought some light to the tunnel. Guanghe County, as one of the two counties that the project is working in, has been actively involved in public awareness building and policy studies to enhance ecosystems and environment protection of the project area. Leaders of the county government and the agriculture bureau who have participated in training and public awareness campaigns implemented through the project have been inspired by the integrated approach to ecosystem and environmental conservation.
With repeated debate and consultation, the county government issued a policy measure in late 2011 that included some county financing to support the collection of used plastics throughout the countryside. At the same time, a large-scale awareness campaign was launched to motivate farmers to participate in the program. Since then, the county has invested over 5 million CNY (approximately US$814,000) for the collection and recycling of 3,700 tons of used plastics, including 750 tons collected in 2011, 850 tons in 2012, 1,000 tons in 2013 and 1,700 tons in 2014. The collection rate of used plastics has increased from 46.9% in 2011 to 85% in 2014.
In this respect, the county government and its agriculture bureau adopted the following three measures. The first measure was awareness building and advocacy among farmers. Agricultural extension agents and county and township officials took every opportunity to educate farmers on the harmful effects that discarded plastic sheeting can have on the environment. Farmers are encouraged to participate in the program in an interest to develop sound, environment smart farming practices. 

The second measure was to establish plastic collection stations that also provided a small reimbursement for the plastic collected. Each village in the county now has one functioning collection station and each township has a larger collection station. After detailed analysis, the county government decided on a standard buy-back price of 1.2 CNY/kg (Approximately US$ .20 per kilo) for the used plastic sheeting. The price was set high enough to motivate farmers to recycle their plastic sheeting without placing too high a financial burden on the county budget. 

The third measure included a government-initiated negotiation process with private enterprises to establish a process to recycle used plastics. Lanzhou Golden Land Plastic Products Company Ltd. was identified and invited to enter into a partnership with farmers and the county government. The recycling process requires that at the main collection center soil is removed from the sheets, the material is pressed into bales and transported directly to the company and traded in for new sheeting. The company recycles the used plastics to produce sheeting and other products for agricultural use, significantly increasing the effective use rate of plastics while preserving the soil and landscape.
Guanghe County can now boast a significant reduction in white pollution with over 95% of collectible plastics now being recycled. Today, it is hard to spot scraps of white plastic mixed into the soil or blowing about in the trees and countryside. Plastic mulching, a farming technology that greatly increases yields while conserving soil and water, is no longer harmful to the environment in the long term.


Edited by: Bo Zheng, Liu Ke and Susan Beccio
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The future is farming! Integrating rural youth in agriculture

October 9, 2014, 9:15 am
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By Vivienne Likhanga


After eight exciting days in field, the  Learning Route: Innovative ideas and approaches to integrate Rural Youth in Agriculture the progress in Kenya came to a close on the 18th of August in Nairobi, Kenya. The Learning Route brought together 22 "ruteros”(route participants), with over one half of them being women, from various IFAD-supported projects, implementing partners and civil society organizations working in different capacities at the local and national governments and non-governmental organizations involved in improving rural livelihoods.We had representations from Haiti, Madagascar, Malawi, Nigeria, Swaziland, Mozambique, South Sudan, Kenya and France. The aim of including participants from all over Africa and part of Latin America and the Caribbean, is to foster south to south cooperation and to share the learning as widely as possible and to facilitate relationships between those working in rural youth and gender related projects.

“I’m here to acquire knowledge and skills on how to actively involve the youth in the projects that we are currently implementing and on how to make them enterprise owners. I am very excited as well to see firsthand the Kenyan experience on innovative strategies and approaches to engage rural youth in agriculture, increase employment and reduce poverty” said Linda Magombo-Munthali from the IFAD funded Rural Livelihoods and Economic Enhancement Programme (RLEEP) in Malawi.

Addressing the needs of rural youth is gathering attention with international development agencies, donors and private companies supporting new initiatives by governmental and non-governmental organizations in many parts of the world and in Africa in particular. Issues surrounding rural youths such as limited access to educational services, dependency on mainly unpaid labour in family farms and working in the informal sector as well as the considerable impact of migration on their livelihoods - especially affecting young women- have been widely recognized as significant. There is overall agreement that if youth issues are not addressed high rates of youth unemployment and under-employment will persist and overall development in African countries could be negatively affected.
In this context and in line with its 2011 – 2015 Strategic Framework, the Procasur Corporation in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), organized an eight day Learning Route : Innovative ideas and approaches to integrate Rural Youth in Agriculture. The progress in Kenya., between the 11th to the 18th of August 2014.

“Traditionally agriculture in Africa has been associated with the older generation. We have to find a nice way to package agriculture and make it appealing to the youth by using simple but effective technology and introducing products with a short cycle so that the youth have a quick return on their investments.  Getting youths interested in and knowledgeable about farming, while helping them seeing the value of it, will be of great importance for our future food security.” said Ms. Anne Laure Roy the Youth Focal Point, IFAD - Policy and Technical Advisory Division (PTA)in the opening session of the Learning Route.

A Learning Route is a capacity building tool with a proven track record of successfully integrating and promoting local rural development knowledge and experiences that positively includes learning among project staff, grass root organizations, private sector and local champions from the field, on best practices that have scaling-up potential. This will continue after the end of the journey itself, allowing projects to develop the methods and tools to adapt and expand innovations and best solutions for the rural poor communities. The end goal is for the local participants to become more effective and strategic in their own context. The Learning Route encourages each participant to come up with a concrete innovation plan for actions.

Mr. Stephen Jalenga, Directorate of Youth from the Ministry of Devolution and Planning in Kenya stressed on the importance of having such kinds of knowledge sharing forums: “I am quite impressed with the idea of innovation and especially the idea of youth coming together from all over the region, particularly the south to south cooperation, to share and learn from successful experiences and go back to try the same with their families and organizations back at their home countries. This can lead to quite a great change in agriculture globally by revolutionizing the youth’s attitude to it and in turn reducing poverty. I do hope that the Learning Route is replicated throughout the country and the world at large so that participants will be able to get good experiences and new perspectives and solutions to address poverty while improving efficiency and impact of all our projects”.

Participants all geared up and ready to hit the
road on the Learning Route bus to visit the four cases
that hosted the Learning Route
Everyone was eager to learn more and more about each other’s experiences! Procasur in collaboration with IFAD selected the relevant cases and supported the participants to prepare appropriately, organizing the logistical aspects as well as securing the relevant discussants for the thematic panels. This enabled the participants to get an opportunity to learn from the enriching group discussions and analyses of the host case studies. During those sessions the technical team made sure to facilitate the discussions around each visited case, highlighting the main challenges, opportunities each model presented with a final session on recommendation and feedback to provide to the local champions that have been hosting the Route.

One of the four host cases discovered during the Learning Route was the Strengthening Rural Youth Development through Enterprise (STRYDE), TechnoServe. STRYDE is a four year regional youth Enterprise development program implemented in partnership with the MasterCard Foundation. It is designed to enable rural youth aged between 18 and 30 years to have a more successful transition to economically independent adulthood. They do this by increasing their opportunity, ability, and motivation to engage in income generating activities; more particularly in agri-business.

A youth group with impressive farming plans is not something you stumble upon every day, especially when young people are more interested in jobs in the city, than staying on the family farm. But the members of the STRYDE Technoserve in Central Kenya are shaking up their community as they conform to make a livelihood through the unconventional while empowering other young people in the area to embrace a bright future as farmers.

Meet Denis Kinyua, a 24 year old local
champion from Cohort 4 of the STRYDE Technoserve
host case study that has successfully used his investments in
Agriculture to further his education and feed his family.
Denis Kinyua is a 24 year old local champion from Cohort 4 of the STRYDE Technoserve host case study. Denis, a "bodaboda" driver (a form of local transportation in Kenya that uses a motor bike),  had dropped out of school before he joined the STRYDE Programme. Through the lessons from the Programme he was encouraged to go back to school to reinforce his knowledge and abilities in agriculture. He went back to Secondary School in January. Denis has also learnt to invest his income from his bodaboda business which he has used to buy cows, farm arrow roots, potatoes, pumpkins and breeds rabbits to supplement his income from the bodaboda business. Once he finishes his Secondary school he wants to go to the university to do Economic studies through his investments in agriculture!

The participants have so many lessons to take home with them from the Learning Route. Top on the list is the realization that the youth have the energy and potential to create and expand enterprises through agribusiness. Indeed with proper guidance this energy can be utilized to alleviate poverty and improve livelihoods through new income generation activities!


During the learning route the participants developed their ideas into a concrete Action Plan, which will outline how they intend to bring new products, services or processes into their projects and organizations and how they can include the youth and address their needs within their activities and strategic framework. Each Action Plan was framed within these on-going projects or programmes, and followed one basic question: how can these projects make use of the lessons learnt and effectively promote the social and economic inclusion of rural youth? They all have a clear objective: as mentioned by the regional Gender and Youth Coordinator, Elizabeth Ssendiwalla: "If we cannot get more people to come to a Learning Route, then we need to be sure we use the lessons learnt in the best way".

Participants of the Learning Route together with the champions
of the Kenya Y2Y fund an entrepreneurship development organization
which aims to provide youth led organizations with both funding
and capacity building, thereby enabling them to move from being
passive recipients and become active participants in the
promotion and creation of youth employment.
Each document starts by stating its goal: what the participant of the Learning Route wants to achieve during the coming months. For example, two of the participants from Swaziland, Lucky Dube and Vuyisile Ndzimandze, drafted a plan to fight rural unemployment and at the same time help eradicate criminal behaviour, by promoting agribusinesses among youth. New enterprises are also to help reduce unemployment in Malawi, as proposed by Alfred Tsitsi, while simultaneously contributing to food security: his proposal aims to encourage young farmers to promote good agricultural practices (GAPs).
The best three Action Plans will be prized with a starting capital of USD 2500.


To follow more details on the learning route: Visit our website and our Facebook pages dedicated  to sharing our experiences, stories and photos from the learning route






IFAD is funding Learning Routes across Africa, Asia and Latin America through the international knowledge-broker Procasur.  A global catalyst for change and knowledge sharing, Procasur's work positively impacts the lives and livelihoods for rural talents across the globe.

For further information, please feel free to contact:
Ariel Halpern: ahalpern@procasur.org, phone: +56-02-3416367
ValentinaSauve:  vsauve@procasur.org, phone: +254 (0) 706046742
Vivienne Likhanga: vlikhanga@procasur.org, phone: +254(020) 2716036
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Celebrating International Day of Rural Women

October 14, 2014, 2:02 am
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by John McIntire, Associate Vice-President, Programme Management Department

A farmer weighing turnips
in El-Ferech, Tunisia©IFAD/ Susan Beccio 
In recognition of the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) in 2014, IFAD is dedicating the International Day of Rural Women on 15 October to the millions of rural women worldwide who live and work on family farms.

It is estimated that smallholder family farms are responsible for up to four fifths of food production in the developing world – thus making a significant contribution to global food security. They are also custodians of vital natural resources and biodiversity, and central to climate change adaptation.

Women carry out a substantial and growing part of the work on family farms and represent 43 per cent of the global agricultural workforce. Indeed, in many parts of the world, women are more likely to work in agriculture than in any other sector. Much of this work is unrecorded, undervalued and unpaid. In addition, the challenges that are common to all family farmers are often exacerbated for rural women, impeding their ability to improve their own livelihoods and those of their families.

For example, despite their crucial role, lack of land rights remains a serious challenge for women farmers. The percentage of farm holdings headed by women worldwide is less than 20 per cent. Control over productive assets and income also continue to be unequal. Rural women typically have less access than men to financial services, new technology and information, and improved agricultural inputs, including such basics as good seed.

Women in smallholder family farms also have greater overall burdens of labour, working an average 13 hours a week more than men. Women of all ages manage household responsibilities, care of children and the elderly, and combine these duties with farming and non-farm activities. Customary norms restrict their activities inside and outside the home, limiting their freedom to make decisions and to take advantage of opportunities. In some developing countries, surveys show that women have no say in how their earnings are spent.

Innovative work at household level
Pacifique Musabyimane stands in front of
her home in Kirehe district, Rwanda
©IFAD/Chris Neglia 
In recognition of the complexity and significance of rural women’s roles, IFAD has developed innovative approaches to engage with all members of poor rural families. Using so-called ‘household methodologies’, trained mentors work with women and men to help them determine common priorities. This includes making joint decisions about what is best for the family and the family business, and redistributing the workload.

Household methodologies produce important changes in family life. All members of the household can begin planning together, working towards family goals and holding each other accountable. The benefits include increased productivity, food security and incomes, together with greater happiness and greater resilience to external shocks.

The approach is being widely applied in Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Uganda, where about 50,000 people are participating. IFAD is leading the drive to scale up household mentoring as a methodology and it has been included in the design of new projects in Ghana, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Mozambique.

The road to Beijing+20
For IFAD, the International Day of Rural Women 2014 is also the starting point for a year-long process to prepare for the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Beijing+20). This was a landmark agreement and policy framework for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Ndoumbe Mbaye (left), 20, and Faton Fiop, 22, attending
a literacy class in Thiourour village, Koki zone, Senegal©IFAD/ Susan Beccio  
The status of rural women has been on the international agenda since the first World Conference on Women in Mexico in 1975 and their rights are enshrined in international treaties such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Despite this, it is a shocking fact that rural women still generally fare worse than rural men, and worse than urban women and men, on all development indicators.

Beijing+20 provides a significant opportunity to focus on the elimination of discrimination against rural women. This must include narrowing the gaps that still exist, in particular with regard to access to education, health care and services, infrastructure, productive resources and assets.

IFAD is planning a series of events at global, national and local level to highlight the importance of economic empowerment for rural women and to showcase the results achieved by IFAD-supported programmes and projects. These events will lead up to the Global Leaders’ Commitment Forum on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, which will take place in September 2015 in conjunction with the United Nations General Assembly.
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Women are leaders in family farming

October 15, 2014, 3:13 am
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Written by IFAD gender team

The United Nations declaration of 2014 as the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) has done much to publicize the role of small family farmers in global food supply. These are people working in any area of agriculture who derive a significant portion of their income from farming, involve members of the family in managing the farm and rely mostly on family labour. Smallholder family farmers are responsible for as much as four fifths of the food produced in the developing world and are major contributors to global food security.

What may be less well known is the key role women play in family farming. Today’s message from IFAD’s Associate Vice-President and Gender Champion underscores their vital contribution.

15 October, marks the International Day of Rural Women, a day that highlights the role of rural women in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty, and throws a spotlight on the many challenges that they face.

A family traveling along the 2-km werabadiyawa road in Galgamuwa, Sri Lanka.
This road was constructed with the help of IFAD's Smallholder Plantations
Entrepreneurship Development Programme.
©IFAD/G.M.B. Akash

The challenges for rural women

Women provide a substantial part of the work on family farms. They have greater overall workloads than men, combining household responsibilities (cooking, cleaning, collecting fuelwood and water), care of children and the elderly, farming and non-farm activities. Moreover, rural women have limited access to productive resources, customary norms restrict their role in households and public life, which limit their ability to make decisions and seize opportunities. In many parts of the world, rural women have little decision-making power at the household level, including on the use of their own earnings.

Investment projects and other programmes are needed to enhance women’s economic and social empowerment, and to support them in ensuring their families’ food security and diversifying income sources.

Household methodologies – working with women and men

IFAD is developing methodologies for supporting family members in developing their household livelihood strategies. The goal is to work with both women and men to determine common priorities and make joint decisions about what is best for the family and the family business, including the distribution of workloads. Addressing gender inequalities is often part of households’ solutions to these issues. Household methodologies produce critical changes in gender relations within households. These include the ability of household members to make their own decisions regarding use of available resources to improve their livelihoods, planning together as a family, working towards family goals and holding each other accountable, as well as increased farm productivity along with food security and incomes. As a result, families using household methodologies report that their livelihoods are more sustainable and resilient.

In Malawi, household mentoring has been piloted at three irrigation schemes under the IFAD/World Bank-supported Irrigation, Rural Livelihoods and Agricultural Development Project. The methodology was introduced to enable households to identify and address gender inequality and HIV/AIDS-related issues at household level. The approach has had a big impact on participating households, including men:

“I have seen big changes in our household – given our past and current life. We have big things happening! I am a happy man. Initially, I was wasting money but with this programme I am clearer. Now we plan, budget together and implement our vision and goals. I am a changed man, I share care work with my wife such as drawing water and taking care of our children.” (Hamton Mdala, male head of household)

Gladys Casafranca, is the chairman of "Las Ovejitas", a women's group in
Occepata, Chincheros, Peru. As a result of the IFAD-supported Marenass project,
 Gladys has an improved stove, buys and sells animals  with her husband, and cultivates sweet peas.
©IFAD/Pablo Corral Vega 

Supporting women’s groups

Women’s groups, including cooperatives, producers’ organizations and self-help groups have proven to be another effective way of addressing some of the challenges faced by women farmers. These groups can facilitate access to markets and financial services for women, and self-help groups can build women’s confidence, voice and bargaining power.

Kamalbai is a woman farmer who joined a self-help group supported by IFAD’s Tejaswini Rural Women’s Empowerment Programme. Through the self-help group, she obtained access to loans and started activities such as growing vegetables for sale in local markets, livestock raising and kitchen gardening. This increased her income and provided her family with better food. Her participation in the self-help group also revealed Kamalbai’s natural leadership skills. Encouraged by her community, she won elections to become Sarpanch (head of village): “From being extremely shy in even talking to men in my own family, today I have no apprehensions in talking to anyone, from State officials to bank staff or even the Chief Minister.”

The groups also provide a safe environment for women to learn new skills, discuss and design their own solutions, implement joint actions, obtain access to productive resources, and process and market products. In addition, the women’s groups provide a platform where social issues and attitudes at the household level can be addressed and changed, including domestic abuse, alcoholism and malnutrition.

The innovative Shaurya Dals deal with
violence against women at the village level
©IFAD
The Tejaswini programme has also initiated the innovative Shaurya Dals (“Courage Brigades”) to deal with violence against women at the village level. A Shaurya Dal is a small village group consisting of 10 members, with five women from self-help groups, and the remaining five persons from the village (including two male members) who are aware and sensitive to gender issues and have required social acceptance. The objective of these groups is to sensitize the village population regarding issues of violence and sexual harassment against women and girls, and to address and resolve these issues through community-based solutions.

In line with IFAD’s Policy on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment and the commitment to place family farmers at the forefront of agricultural transformation and sustainable development, IFAD-supported projects and programmes are increasingly addressing women’s role in family farming. Through the use of household methodologies and by involving women farmers in women’s groups, the aim is to strengthen their decision-making power and increase their income earning opportunities for the benefit of the entire family.

Addressing gender inequalities and empowering women are vital to meeting the challenge of improving food and nutrition security, and enabling poor rural people to overcome poverty. (IFAD’s Policy on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment)

Read more:




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Building strong partnerships for nutrition and agricultural development

October 16, 2014, 12:04 am
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by Kanayo F Nwanze

Every night, 842 million women, children and men go to bed hungry. Every day 8,000 children die needlessly from conditions linked to under-nutrition. Globally, 2 billion people suffer from micronutrient malnutrition.

These statistics are well known, but they bear repeating. The burden of under-nutrition is incalculable, and the ramifications for children are particularly severe. When a child is deprived of essential nutrients in the womb and during the first two years of life, the resulting damage to physical and mental development can lead to a lifetime of health problems and unrealised potential.

There is not only a moral and social imperative to address under-nutrition, but an economic one. It is estimated that childhood malnutrition will cost the global economy some $125 billion in lost GDP growth by 2030.

It is one of life’s cruel paradoxes that many smallholder farmers, who do so much to help feed their nations, are too often hungry and malnourished. It is estimated that three-quarters of the world’s hungry people live in rural areas. Investing in nutrition through smallholder agriculture is more than a social good. It is sound development policy and good economics.

For years, many in the agricultural sector thought that under-nutrition could be solved by a simple equation: increase agricultural production and incomes, and better nutrition would automatically follow. After all, if you grow more food and earn more money, you can consume more food and nutrients. We now know that income growth alone does not guarantee good nutrition. Despite better yields, higher revenues and greater access to markets, the rates of under-nutrition and micronutrient deficiency remain unacceptably high in many rural regions.

Over the last few decades, we have learned important lessons that have helped us ensure that agriculture – the biggest employer in most of the regions where IFAD works -- contributes to better nutrition. First, there is compelling evidence that women’s education, health, nutritional status and decision-making power have a significant impact on the health and nutritional status of children. Women are the primary care givers in rural households, and when women earn money, they are more likely than men to spend it on food for the family. More than half of the reduction in malnutrition between 1970 and 1995 is attributable to improvements in women’s status and education. Empowering and educating women must be a principal goal of agricultural development.

We put this knowledge to work in Bangladesh, where we partnered with the government and WorldFish to introduce nutrient-dense small fish to poor communities. As part of the project, families were educated on the importance of nutrition, particularly for pregnant women and young mothers. As a result, malnutrition and stunting have been reduced significantly.

Second, we need to address issues of wastage and post-harvest losses so that farmers can make the most from what they grow and reduce the amount of extra food they need to grow. Today, there is no shortage of food globally — the world grows enough. But in sub-Saharan Africa, between 20 and 40 per cent of crop production is lost because of poor processing and storage. We see similar problems in poor rural communities in every region where we work: Asia, Latin America, North Africa and Central and Eastern Europe.

Investing in modern storage facilities means that farmers can keep their produce safe during harvest seasons so that it can be eaten or sold at a later date. We have seen this in Timor-Leste where two-thirds of the population is considered food insecure. More than 60 per cent of the children where we work are chronically undernourished. Low crop productivity has long been a problem in Timor-Leste, but when farmers were first offered high-yield maize seeds, they hesitated. They were already losing 30 per cent of their stored maize every year to pests.

IFAD joined forces with the Timor-Leste Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Australian government to provide better storage and better seeds, which we expect will increase food availability by 70 per cent. The secure storage also creates an incentive for farmers to adopt higher yielding varieties and should allow them to wait for the off-season when prices are higher. Secure storage also creates an opportunity for farmers to climb the value ladder, moving into alternative income activities, such as producing food for livestock. As this example shows, low production and waste are two parts of a complex, dynamic equilibrium that locks rural people into cycles of poverty. Such complex problems demand systematic solutions and strong partnerships.

Thirdly, we must ensure that knowledge and science serve agriculture. Scientific advances can improve the nutritional value of what we grow. We have seen innovations such as quality protein maize, which offers 90 per cent of the nutritional value of skimmed milk, or the bio-fortification of key crops to address micronutrient deficiencies — such as vitamin A in sweet potato. These are already making a difference to food and security but more needs to be done to help farmers grow and sell a more diverse range of foods. There are more than 50,000 edible plants in the world, but studies show that rice, maize and wheat provide 60 per cent of the world’s energy intake. Several indigenous crops are known to be more nutritious than the ones we eat today, while fruits and vegetables provide micronutrients that are vital for good health. Through science, we can improve the quality of available food, and through education, we can ensure that this translates into better nutrition.

In order to improve dietary quality for people of all ages in a community, behavioural change is necessary. That means there has to be a convergence of efforts and inclusive partnerships so that people have the nutritional knowledge as well as the resources to satisfy it. On a community level, diversified crops, more nutritious varieties and higher incomes may only amount to better harvests in the barn and money in the bank, not better meals on the table and food in children's stomachs. As we have seen, by taking spectrum of actions and increasing knowledge of care and feeding practices, household diets, and the preparation and storage of food, we can turn mere growth into real gain.

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Innovative Investments in Agriculture and Food Security – CFS Side Event

October 16, 2014, 7:41 am
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Innovation in the agricultural sector was the topic of a side event held last Wednesday during the Committee on World Food Security (CFS 41) at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) building in Rome. Moderated by IFAD’s Gernot Laganda, panellists Richard Choularton (World Food Programme [WFP]), Andrea Cattaneo (FAO) and Santiago del Solar (Consorcios Regionales de Experimentacion Agricola [CREA]) contributed their perspectives on how innovation is generated, and how it is eventually adopted and used in the field.

In his initial remarks, Choularton proposed that innovation has a lot to do with failure. According to Choularton, previous donor investments secured incremental gains for small farmers, which every few years were wiped away by natural disasters such as droughts or floods. Perceiving the recurrence of these events, WFP developed a micro insurance scheme specifically tailored to improve the climate risk management of people with very few assets. The product is proving to be attractive to small farmers since they have the option to pay for premiums with their own labour. In Senegal and Ethiopia where this programme is active, insured farmers have been able to save more than twice the sum compared to those without any insurance, and they invest more in productive inputs.

However, innovation does not arise unswervingly. The long-term sustainability of the programme is not assured since, as Choularton conceded, about 80 percent of the cost of premiums is subsidized. And while small farmers enjoy the current work-for-insurance modality, it is unlikely private insurance companies would operate on the basis of in kind transfers. Nevertheless, it does not mean that this undoubtedly innovative financial mechanism cannot evolve in the context where the service is being provided, and actually facilitate a market for cash paying farmers. Indeed, the growth of farmers’ mutual insurance was a gradual process in Europe and North America.  

Andrea Cattaneo described the persistence of bottlenecks that can hinder innovation from taking hold. This can occur when, for example, policies are implemented unevenly, or establish perverse incentives, creating what he called ‘binding constraints’. Cattaneo also emphasized that innovation should be addressed in a broader system – through socioeconomic and climate  perspectives and trying to link the tailored solutions to specific National Agricultural Investment Plans.

Santiago del Solar representing the World Farmers Organizations through CREA (Consorcios Regionales de Experimentacion Agricola), an Argentine organization of  farmers dedicated to improving each farming enterprise, also offered edifying examples of how innovation can take hold in the most inhospitable of circumstances. Years ago, his group noticed that erosion and soil degradation were destroying agricultural land. The innovation they came up with was no-till technology, which at the time was not used in the Argentine countryside. Del Solar explained that when he first practised no-till, he made many mistakes. His own father criticized him because he would not use a plough like other farmers. But a generation later – 95 percent of Argentine farmers are using no-till farming methods. Nothing short of a revolution. In his words, innovation in the field occurs  because “farmers believe other farmers”.

What became salient to me during this session, was that innovation does not always occur within the timescales we prescribe. New behaviour and technologies are rarely inculcated within the span of a project. But, as Gernot Laganda offered in his summary, we should work to support innovation by identifying and addressing the financial drivers, institutional pathways and policy spaces that both define and negate agricultural paradigms. By training our efforts on change in these areas we can overcome the binding constraints that limit farmers’ abilities to realize their full potentials. 
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Farmers of Asia and Pacific are meeting in Vietnam (18-23 October)

October 19, 2014, 9:08 pm
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This week end the annual regional steering committee of the Farmers Organisations MTCP2 program is starting in Hanoi, bringing together 50 participants from 15 countries of Asia Pacific Region (representing 900 FOs and 13 million farmers).
The event is divided in 4 phases: field visits with VNFU (Vietnam Farmers Federation Union (http://vnfu.vn/), conclusions of the Supervision and Implementation Support Mission and agreed actions, FOs and partners progress presentations on Tuesday and Steering Committee conclusions on Wednesday. We will bring you daily updates !
Follow us on MTCP2 facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MTCP2 .
Benoit THIERRY, MTCP2 manager, in Hanoi.







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Illegal logging in Peru

October 21, 2014, 3:04 am
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Written by Jess Morgan

Deaths of Campaigners brings illegal logging to light

A quadruple homicide in Peru’s Amazon Ucayali region has brought to light illegal logging activities and speculation regarding the safety of indigenous peoples.

Four Asheninka natives' bodies were found on 1st September while on their way to Apiwtxa, an Ashéninka community across the border in Brazil. They included a prominent anti-logging campaigner, Edwin Chota, who was the leader of Alto Tamaya-Saweto, a community near the Peruvian frontier with Brazil in the upper reaches of Alto Tamaya River. Chota had been leading campaigns for over 10 years striving to gain his people legal titles to their land and to expel illegal loggers from the area.

'Starting in 2002, he delivered over one hundred letters to as many governmental officials as he could demanding birth certificates, a better school, and adequate health facilities for his community. His life project encompassed every aspect needed to build thriving borderland communities'.

Chota's goal was to aid and better his community whilst conserving natural ecosystems and live sustainably. The Huffington Post wrote that 'Chota dreamed of a borderless Amazonian forest with indigenous peoples thriving alongside the region's biodiversity. He envisioned a new generation of indigenous families living in peace while teaching others how to protect and use the forest. In Chota's dream, Saweto would become a model indigenous community leading the way towards a more sustainable Amazon.'

However the land his community lives on is home to mahogany and cedar, both of which are in high demand globally. Insightcrime.org states that 80 percent of Peru's total timber exports are illegal and the money that can be earned is a tempting prospect for many: 'Traffickers can earn US$1,700 for every high-quality mahogany tree sold on the black market, and about US$1,000 for a cedar tree' . However as the illegal timber trade has flourished it has attracted smugglers of other illegal goods such as opium and coca paste.

A question of protection

“It was widely known that Edwin Chota and other leaders from the Alto Tamaya-Saweto community were asking for protection from the Peruvian authorities because they were receiving death threats from the illegal loggers operating in their area,” said Julia Urrunaga, director for the Environmental Investigation Agency in Peru, an international conservation group.

In an area where the law is an undefined grey area, the loggers ignore any rights the indigenous peoples may have, be it ownership or humanitarian and work to remove any opposition against their illegal operations.

Without legal protection people such as Chota are in a dangerous position which not only puts their lives, but their environment and communities' livelihoods at risk.

We must support indigenous peoples in gaining rights to their lands. By doing so, we will protect a large share of the world's most biodiverse areas and genetic resources which are found in areas where indigenous peoples live, and where they have been sustainably maintained for millennia. There is a strong need today for global recognition of the critical role that indigenous peoples play in conserving biodiversity.

We need to build and strengthen the capacities of indigenous peoples to protect their land and resource rights. Not only does this hinder illegal loggers, but also promotes food security and sustainable livelihoods. For information about sustainable timber production in South America and what IFAD is doing to help look here.
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MTCP2 Day2- Asia and Pacific Farmers Organisations strenghten their actions

October 21, 2014, 8:30 am
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In Hanoi, the steering committee of MTCP2, in support to farmers organisations of Asia and Pacific region, will triple the 2015 annual workplan and budget based on the good results of the Project Year1 and with the support of IFAD, Swiss Development Cooperation and European Commission.

 Specific sub regional programs are being design to adapt to the dynamics of each region and participant countries. Three components are being implemented : 1/ strenghtening FOs capacities and networks, 2/ policy dialogue at national and regional level, 3/ increasing economic services to FO members.


 https://www.facebook.com/MTCP2


IN THE PRESS : VIETNAM NEWS 21 OCTOBER 2014

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Where research meets development: A conversation on challenges and opportunities with Audrey Nepveu and Alain Vidal

October 22, 2014, 1:13 am
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Audrey Nepveu and Alain Vidal discussing the transition from CPWF
to CRP5 during the 3rd International Forum on Water and Food
in Tshwane, South Africa, November 2011.
In May 2012, IFAD awarded the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) a two-year grant to contribute to improving the food security and livelihoods of poor rural communities. The IFAD grant was an opportunity to test out CPWF’s emerging technical and institutional innovations. CPWF would influence and collaborate with key change agents—including IFAD field staff—in order to scale up a number of its research innovations and findings.

From 28-29 October members of the CPWF team will gather at IFAD headquarters to share the results and findings of their work, including tools and approaches for improving the food security and livelihoods of poor rural communities. Ahead of the event, we sat down with IFAD technical advisor Audrey Nepveu (ANV) and former CPWF Director Alain Vidal (AV) to chat about challenges and opportunities for the research and development nexus.

Tell us a little about the grant as it was originally conceived. In your view, what was the goal of giving this grant to CPWF?

ANV: The idea of the grant came about when the last reform of the CGIAR system was launched, because it signaled that the third phase of the CGIAR Challenge Programs was not likely to happen. The Challenge Programs were structured around three phases: the first one of creativity (2003-2008), the second one focusing (2009-2013) and the third one capitalizing (2014-2018). What was then at stake was to capitalize the results achieved by CPWF, one of the successful Challenge Programs, within the compressed timeframe of the second, and now, final, phase.

In those days, it was the beginning of the second phase of CPWF. Hence, the idea of the grant was to work on the existing, validated results generated by the first phase of CPWF, and capitalize them for development practitioners to use.

AV: The words you have used for the three phases of CPWF are interesting from a development institution’s perspective. I am not sure I would qualify the third phase as capitalizing: we always saw it as a phase where development partners would test, adapt and scale up our institutional and technical innovations. It would have been more a ‘handing over’ phase. But whatsoever you are perfectly right that because that phase became embedded in the next round of CGIAR reform, the CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs), we needed a mechanism to engage with IFAD early enough to ensure those innovations would not remain on a shelf.

ANV: Yes, and CPWF had also demonstrated its capacity to bring different people together to develop successful and practical innovations. So another dimension of the grant to CPWF was to create the space to explore what it takes for developers and researchers to work together.

In what capacity was IFAD working with CPWF, and research institutions in general, at the time?

ANV: Since 2005, IFAD had worked with CPWF as a donor – even if a minor one in financial terms. However, beginning with the preparation of phase 2, I believe IFAD and CPWF became real partners in the water sector, focusing efforts on the issues that will hit practitioners in the near future; on food security at global, basin and local levels, on the consequences for the rural poor…

AV: What facilitated this engagement were our shared common values of focusing on people, contributing to alleviating poverty and diverse partnerships. We already possessed a common language and approach to rural poverty that could help us pass the usual barriers that partners from different horizons face when engaging with each other.

The actual implementation of the grant varied quite a bit from what was first envisioned. Can you talk about what changed and why?

ANV: I do not completely agree with this statement. What happened was that we achieved a great level of flexibility in implementation through close coordination, and activities were adapted to explore more ways for developers/implementers to interact with researchers and their results. And I think this was highly interesting, in particular what we found did not work. For example, the format of events for researchers did not work so well for developers, and efforts were undertaken to propose meetings and events with content of direct use for developers. In a similar way, developers also had to make efforts to slow down and listen to the new ideas and tools proposed by researchers.

AV: Yes, I think on both sides, the challenge was to bring both developers and researchers outside of their comfort zones, away from their normal technical solutions and science, so as to jointly start thinking ‘out of the box’ and figure out how innovations could make sense and be scaled up in a given—and often different—context.

ANV: Where CPWF really surprised me though was when they decided to modify their whole working modality to build on the learnings from this grant: for all CPWF activities, developers and politicians were included in the action-research process, thus speeding up and facilitating the uptake of the results generated!

AV: Indeed, but what also changed was our initial focus on CPWF Phase 1 results, as we progressively took on board the results from Phase 2. We have really learnt together what research-for-development means.

What do you see as the biggest takeaways from this collaborative effort?

ANV: The biggest takeaway I see is in the setup proposed by CPWF to undertake action research. This setup was demonstrated to be of interest to donors because it delivers practical results, useful tools and knowledge. It was a pleasure to attend CPWF fora organized every three years and have the opportunity to meet enthusiastic yet practical, committed researchers from a vast array of competencies. They were happy to work together and used their critical minds to push for optimum solutions. I would like this to be taken up by the latest CGIAR reform cycle with the CGIAR Research Programs.

AV: The three CPWF international fora on water and food also provided an opportunity for a broad ‘water and food’ research-for-development community—including not only researchers but also development practitioners, decision makers and politicians—to mingle, interact, and brainstorm ideas way beyond the classical format of a scientific conference. It also contributed to consolidating the institutional values CPWF aimed to develop within these communities, which are now incorporated in the principles that the CGIAR Consortium tries to apply to its strategic partnerships and capacity development.

ANV: Another takeaway that is not mentioned so much can be found in the ‘basin development challenges’. In each of the six basins where CPWF worked between 2009-2014, between one and two basin development challenges were identified through a six-month consultative processes. However, the funding that CPWF managed to raise in the wake of the 2008 food crisis was only sufficient to support work on one basin development challenge for each basin. There is still a second research question to tackle in each basin. That could be looked into as some of these development challenges may have become more critical in the last five years.

In what ways do you think IFAD’s programming can benefit from tapping into research? How would IFAD staff and research institutions have to change to strengthen the potential for future collaborations?

AV: I see a huge potential for IFAD and its programming to benefit from a better understanding of and engagement with CGIAR research-for-development in general, since IFAD and CGIAR share a lot of their values and objectives, and IFAD, unlike other lending or granting development agencies, still has a broad set of in-house technical skills. But instead of an ad hoc mechanism where CGIAR researchers or programs are brought on board a bit like consultants, we could probably try to develop a mechanism where the CGIAR pool of expertise could be brought in more systematically, especially in countries where both institutions are focusing their efforts. I think this is what this IFAD grant has also tried to explore, but there is still a long way to go.

ANV: Thanks to the grant to CPWF, we did explore what would work for IFAD to interact with the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems. The Lao experience will be presented during the event. However, it takes quite some time for IFAD and WLE to understand each other, and call on the other at the appropriate moment in the project lifetime. I think that there will be a need for more sharing events, and also for displaying the tools and approaches generated by action research.


Hear more about the approaches CPWF piloted for uniting research and development for poverty alleviation. Visit the event pageand attend the event on 28-29 October.
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A step toward biodiversity conservation in a SIDS: Ecological and cartographic studies for protected marine and terrestrial areas in Comoros

October 22, 2014, 2:54 am
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By: Elisa Distefano

Photo 1: Programme areas

A recently completed GEF project, “Integrated Ecological Planning and Sustainable Land Management in Coastal Ecosystems in the Comoros” supported  long-term ecological restoration through the development and implementation of Integrated Ecosystem Management (IEM) plans in the three islands of Gran Comore, Anjouan and Moheli.
The grant was fully integrated into the IFAD National Sustainable Human Development Programme  (PNDHD), and has contributed to  reducing current  land degradation trends by putting 1,052 ha of land under sustainable land management practices, replanting 384 ha of degraded forest and 4.5 ha of mangroves in coastal areas.
”Both the environmental awareness raising and the implementation of 6 IEM plans, which included 43 villages, are in the  national interest and have had positive environmental and socio-economic impacts. Without the GEF intervention and the restoration of ecosystem services, the IFAD loan objectives would have been less sustainable,” saidMr Anllaouddine Abou Houmadi, GEF project Coordinator.
The GEF grant was also instrumental in commissioning a series of cartographic and feasibility studies for the creation of protected areas, to name a few:
The “Feasibility study for starting a locally managed marine Area (Anjouan)” provides a detailed ecological, socio-economic characterization of the  Sima/Bimbini peninsula, the identification of conservation targets and the delineation of  areas with potential alternative land use  options .The study alsopresents the benefits  and challenges  of  locally managing protected areas.  Key  recommendations include creating a legal framework that would  allow villagesto act as managers ofprotected areas, along with  reinforcing  local organizations’ competencies. This exercise  was complemented by the “Ecological and Cartographic Study for the protection of the Bimbini peninsula” which not only proposes the  legislation and regulation of protected areas, but also presents a detailed environmental health and biodiversity status of the barrier reef, mangroves and sea grasses.


Photos 2,3:Current Marine reserve zoning and proposed PA zoning 

The “Delimitation, zoning and ecological characterization of the Kathala Forest (Grande Comore)” study presents a description of the floristic richness of the area, the altitudinal succession of plant associations, an ethnobotanic investigation, as well as an inventory of the most exploited species. The study concludes with a demarcation of  potential conservation zones, according to the IUCN protected area  categories.

 


Photos 4,5:Changes in forest cover across 1969-2010   Distribution of some endemic plants in the proposed PA

Similarly, the “Ecological and Cartographic Study for the protection of the forest of La Grille (Gran Comore)” has carried out a socio-economic survey of neighboring villages, investigated the abundance and distribution of the most exploited tree species, and the taxonomic fauna and floristic richness. It is a useful tool to refine a protected area co-management plan for the area.










Photo 6:PA zoning
These studies will help UNDP to continue this important work in protected area development through the implementation of a new GEF project currently being launched[1].


[1]Development of a National Network of Terrestrial and Marine Protected Areas Representative of the Comoros Unique Natural Heritage and Co-managed with Local Village Communities
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Indigenous plant products industry in Africa – the experience of PhytoTrade Africa

October 22, 2014, 7:23 am
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©PhytoTrade
Written by Harold Liversage, Senior Technical Specialist: Land Tenure, IFAD, and Francesca Carpano, Land Tenure Consultant, Policy and Technical Advisory Division, IFAD

On 13th October 2014 IFAD's East and Southern Africa Division and Policy and Technical Advisory Division organised a seminar on "Indigenous plant products industry in Africa – the experience of PhytoTrade Africa", which  was attended by many colleagues from various divisions. The event was webcast and followed by around 30 participants. The seminar provided PhytoTrade Africa– IFAD grant recipient – the possibility to share with us its experience and explore options for further collaboration.

PhytoTrade Africa 

Phytotrade Africa is a non-profit, membership-based trade association established in 2001 for the indigenous plant products industry in Africa, with a current focus on southern Africa. It represents private-sector, NGOs and individuals working in Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It has about 70 members and a core staff of about 15. Its purpose is to alleviate poverty and protect biodiversity by developing an industry that is economically successful, ethical and sustainable. It aims to generate additional sources of cash income for poor rural households mainly living in less accessible semi-arid and arid areas, through the commercialization of the natural resources to which they have preferential access.

Over the past 14 years Phytotrade Africa  has made great strides in sustainably developing and marketing indigenous plant products to the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries. Currently it supports at least 14,300 harvesters, of which about 9,500 (66%) are women. Gross annual revenues are about USD2.3 million with the cash income for primary producers/harvesters being about USD940,000 p.a. Phytotrade Africa  members have added about USD1.47 million of value to the raw materials bought from primary producers/harvesters.
©PhytoTrade

Phytotrade Africa developed a Charter that binds members to sustainable use, equitable benefit sharing, compliance to national and international legislation, fair trade, free, prior and informed consent and respect of existing land and natural resource tenure. It has adopted the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS) to the Convention on Biological Diversity which was adopted in 2010 in Nagoya, Japan and is a supplementary international agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Since 2010 it has focused more on business and financial aspects and on broadening market access, adopting a strategy based on the provision of services to members. Through this strategy it intends to broaden the distribution network and localize quality control for the cosmetic ingredients to gain more control and value addition over product positioning, pricing and sales. It is targeting the development of key species that will generate large demand volumes; it aims to increase the inclusion of new harvesters into the supply chain and to focus on the financial capacity and structure of its members to grow to the market demand.

Following requests from SMEs and other stakeholders in the sector, PhytoTrade Africa is preparing to extend this approach to other African countries, such as Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroun and Senegal.

PhytoTrade Africa and its partnership with IFAD

©PhytoTrade
IFAD has been a key partner from the outset and has provided almost USD5.4 million to Phytotrade Africa since 2001 through 6 grants. Currently IFAD is providing a large grant of USD1.5 million for the “Programme for Alleviating Poverty and Protecting Biodiversity through BioTrade” which is co-financed by AFD and FFEM. The programme is expected to run for three years from 2012 – 15 and is comprised of five main components: (i) supply chain development; (ii) community biodiversity training; (iii) development of the mafura sector in Mozambique; (iv) market expansion; and (v) increased access to financing. By the end of 2015, it is expected that the programme will: increase sales of members from USD1.34 million to more than USD10 million; increase the number of rural harvesters from 10,700 to 26,500; and increase incomes of participating rural harvesters from US$0.58 million to more than US$2 million .



The long term support provided by IFAD raised the issue of how better document and share the impacts that the grants provided to PhytoTrade Africa have produced over the years on the Fund's target group. In the discussions held during and after the seminar, it was also highlighted the need to better and further link PhytoTrade interventions with IFAD programmes and projects in the field (e.g. on pastoralism or financing mechanisms) and concrete options were explored, as a possible participation of PhytoTrade in the next project design in Cameroon.  Some challenges were posed in relation to, for example, the measurement of impact and the anecdotal evidence of such impact (e.g. the impact on the local baobab market in Malawi), the possible tensions between private sector and communities, the endorsement by the states and the implementation of the existing safeguards to avoid abuses and the protection of intellectual property (e.g. the Nagoya Protocol).

These discussions need to linked to a broader reflection that the Fund should have on how IFAD would deal with ethical biotrade and what should or could be its contributions to the development of this sector that, in many cases, is an additional source of income for the poor rural people, with a potential specific role as adaptation measure.  PhytoTrade area of interventions has also a strong gender component, demonstrated by the fact that 66% of its harvesters are women and that some activities (e.g. shea butter) are a specific women domain, which may be of relevance for IFAD's interventions in this field.

For further information:

Presentation by Mr Arthur Stevens, IFAD Project Manager and PhytoTrade Supply Chain Manager

Presentation by Ms Audrey Rousson, AFD/FFEM and PhytoTrade Project Manager


[1]In addition to the support being provided by IFAD, AFD and FFEM, Phytotrade Africa has over the years been supported financially or worked with: the Centre for Development of Enterprise (CDE), Comic Relief, Doen Foundation, Ford Foundation, GIZ, HIVOS, ICRAF, IFC, IUCN, MCA, Swiss Economic Cooperation and Development (SECO), UNCTAD and USAID. SECO is presently the largest funder, with IFAD being the second largest and providing about 25% of all funding
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The marvels of investing in agriculture and believing in the power and potential of smallholder farmers in Azerbaijan

October 22, 2014, 11:04 am
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The best part of my job is when I get to visit the countries and the people who we work with and serve. This time round, I was fortunate enough to visit my first upper-middle-income country: Azerbaijan.

The World Bank estimates that 86 middle-income countries in the world account for just under half of the world’s population. and they are home to one-third of poor people in the world.

As an upper-middle-income country, Azerbaijan boosts excellent infrastructure, which made my 270 kilometre travel to the IFAD-funded Integrated Rural Development Project in Yevlakh a pleasant “stroll”.

Mehbara Davudova attending to her crop
Photo credit: IFAD/R.Samii
IFAD-funded interventions in Azerbaijan which are closely aligned to the country’s agriculture and rural development strategies have helped develop the agriculture sector as a dominant force in the rural economy and improve food security by providing rural communities with access to assets and services for the sustainable management of natural resources, including improved irrigation and rangeland management. This has resulted in improved living conditions of disadvantaged rural communities.

The Integrated Rural Development Project is assisting rural people to use available natural resources effectively and efficiently allowing them to increase crop and livestock productivity.  Furthermore, it is providing smallholder farmers access to credit so that they can improve the existing irrigation infrastructure.

Before heading off to visit the project site, Samir Nabiyer, the regional coordinator told me that “working together with the Government the project is rehabilitating and reconstructing  irrigation canals covering 70,000 hectares.”

“Our goal is for the smallholder farmers to rehabilitate all the irrigation infrastructure, own their equipment, establish water-user associations and embrace good husbandry practices”.

As part of its agriculture and rural development strategy, the government has put in place measures to improve the living conditions of rural people. One of these, was the rehabilitation of the green houses which is a reminiscence from the Soviet era.

Mehbara Davudova, a well-established smallholder lady farmer, is running a thriving farming business on her 0.15 hectare land thanks to an initial credit of 4000 manat (US$5000).

“Thanks to the loan which I was able to repay in two years, I was able to setup five green-houses, where i plant vegetables 12 months a year”, says Davudova.

Davudova’s farming business provides her a secure income of approximately 1500 manat per month. This has allowed her to rehabilitate two irrigation systems on the farm, build a house and send her 16 year daughter and 8 year old son to school.

“I am hoping that with the profit of the next harvest season, I’ll be able to build another house”, says Davudova with a smile.

 In the neighbouring farm, Sultekin and Arastun Mammadov are also running a flourishing farming business and are engaged in husbandry and livestock.

Visiting their greenhouse, the Mammadovs told me “In winter, just to make sure that cold weather does not damage the crop, we use heaters”.

When I asked them if they had any fire safety and security  measures in place, they did not seem too impressed by my question…..

They were however, intrigued by the proposition of exploiting their livestock further and putting in place biogas digesters to heat the greenhouse. I committed to put the various parties in touch with our colleagues working on the portable biogas project in Kenya.

Who knows, maybe if I get lucky again and have the fortune of visiting them, they will be running highly efficient biogas digesters, providing not only heating for the greenhouse, but also electricity and gas for the kitchen!
Mahir Aliyeb
Photo credit: IFAD/R.Samii

Building the livestock sector
Before heading back to Baku, we visited Mahir Aliyeb, a herder. Aliyeb was able to buy 40 heads of livestock thanks to a loan of 10,000 manat. He probably is a precursor to the future project beneficiaries of IFAD-funded activities.

Aliyeb is renting the land neighbouring his property for grazing purposes. “I pay 2 manat per hectare every year for this grazing land, allowing the cattle to graze on alfa-alfa”, explains Aliyeb.

As an acute businessman, Aliyeb has diversified his source of income. He is making good profit with his daily 25 litres of milk and gets additional income by selling sheep wool and animals to the local abattoirs.

“I know that the people I sell the milk to, make motar cheese and they sell it for 10 manat”, says Aliyeb. “I want to learn how to do this myself, so that I can set up a local business and no longer go through the middleman.”

“I also want to learn how to better take care of my animals, so that they do not get sick and they stay strong. This will allow me to sell not only the animals at higher price, but also to make better and varied dairy products.”

Mahir Aliyeb's cattle heading off to the grazing area
Photo credit: IFAD/R.Samii
The future holds bright prospects for Aliyeb and his fellow herders, as the next generation of IFAD-funded programmes and projects in Azerbaijan will focus on developing and strengthening value chains with a focus on the livestock sector and more specifically on improving traditional husbandry practices,  putting in place traceability mechanism, as well as enhancing quality and hygiene standards while helping to access new markets.

Hopefully soon, Aliyeb will be able to package his dairy products and not only sell them in supermarkets in Baku and other cities in Azerbaijan, but also start exporting them to neighbouring countries.
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