UN-Backed Project to Benefit Senegal’s Rural Poor

The United Nation’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) announced plans to provide US $15 million to a project in Senegal that aims to help families living in the West African country’s “groundnut basin”. The project will target some 36,000 family-run farms and focus on vulnerable smallholders with limited family labor, women and girls, and underemployed young people.

Senegal’s ground nut basin was once the country’s most vibrant agricultural region. But an extended slump in world groundnut markets, continued land degradation and climate change have brought a steady economic decline in the area. Under the project, farmer organizations will be strengthened so that members have a greater say in decision-making processes regionally and nationally, hopefully leading to more equitable distribution of profits and increased market access. To date IFAD has funded 14 rural development projects in Senegal for a total of about US$ 150 million.

Read the press release at http://www.ifad.org/media/press/2008/49.htm