The European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, and the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Alvaro Lario, signed, on Tuesday 28 March, two agreements totalling €70.7 million in Rome to boost the sustainable production of nutritious, locally grown food and strengthen the resilience of small-scale farmers to climatic and economic shocks in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
Thus, under the programme ‘Investing in Livelihood Resilience and Soil Health in ACP Countries’, the EU is providing €52.5 million to IFAD for activities in Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Mali and Niger, to start with.
The aim is to promote agroecology and sustainable agricultural practices aimed at improving and sustaining soil fertility, a more efficient use of synthetic and organic fertilizers, sustainable water management, the production of local bio-fertilizers, the use of biodigesters, and small-scale producers’ access to inputs tailored to local agroecological conditions.
In addition, the EU is providing an €18.2 million grant for the ‘Global Programme for Small-scale Agroecology Producers and Sustainable Food Systems Transformation’ and Belgium an additional €5 million.
“The EU and its Member States have committed €18 billion in the short and medium term for the transition to sustainable food systems in the world by 2024” and these investments “are based on solidarity, trade, resilience and multilateralism”, Ms Urpilainen said in a video conference.
Mr Lario stressed the importance of “strengthening local production in the value chain in the face of the food crisis and increasing hunger”, given that “small-scale farmers receive only 6 to 7 cents of every dollar produced”.
Small-scale farmers produce one third of the world’s food and up to 70% of the food in low and middle income countries. Since 2006, the EU has provided IFAD with almost €675 million (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)