A new project targeting 57,000 of Burkina Faso’s most vulnerable smallholder farmer households will be launched 23 November in Ouagadougou, and will help toward improving food security and incomes in the Boucle du Mouhoun, Cascades and Hauts Bassins Regions.
The Agricultural Value Chain Promotion Support Project (PAPFA) will be presented at a workshop organized by the Government of Burkina Faso (GoBF) and IFAD. Sommanogo Koutou, Minister for Animal Resources and Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources ad interim and Lisandro Martin, Regional Director of IFAD’s West and Central Africa Division, will open the workshop, which will involve smallholder farmers, government officials, development partners and IFAD staff.
Among the major challenges facing Burkina Faso in the coming decade is modernization of the agricultural sector, both as a means to drive the transformation of the national economy and to bring about strong, sustainable and inclusive growth. By developing four agricultural value chains – rice, vegetables, sesame and cowpea – PAPFA will contribute to achieving this objective. In particular, it will improve smallholder farmers’ productivity, support value addition processing and promote entrepreneurship to spur growth in rural areas.
The total cost of the new project is US$71.7 million, including a $19 million loan and a $19 million grant under the debt sustainability framework from IFAD. PAPFA will be cofinanced by the OPEC Fund for International Development ($20 million), the Government of Burkina Faso ($6.4 million) and the beneficiaries themselves ($7.3 million).
“PAPFA is well-aligned with Burkina Faso’s National Economic and Social Development Plan, which aims to boost the economy and create jobs,” said Jacob Ouédraogo, Burkina Faso’s Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources. “With the support of the IFAD, we intend to sustainably reduce poverty and stimulate economic growth for the benefit of rural populations.”
PAPFA builds on the gains made by previous projects, such as the Agricultural Commodity Value Chain Support Project, the Rural Business Services Development Project, Neer-Tamba and the Agricultural Diversification and Market Development Project. It targets not only smallholder farmers and their organizations engaged in production, processing and marketing, but also agro-entrepreneurs.
About 27,500 households will receive production support, 27,000 will be assisted in setting up or consolidating rural microenterprises and 2,500 will be supported in value chain development. PAPFA aims to ensure that at least 50 per cent of the project’s participants are women and 30 per cent are young people.
“To develop agriculture and make it sustainable, scaling up our impactful investments is key. We designed PAPFA based on lessons learned from other IFAD-funded projects including those from Burkina Faso,” said Martin. “The project will help create decent jobs for women and young people and support the development of rural enterprises along the four value chains. We consider agriculture as a business.”
Since 1981, IFAD has financed 14 rural development programmes and projects in Burkina Faso at a total cost of $548.4 million, with an IFAD investment of $276.7 million. These projects have directly benefited 563,200 rural households.
