El Salvador: small farmers receive boost from UN rural development arm

The United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is providing funding to a $22.2 million project to allow more than 70,000 rural poor in eastern El Salvador to transition their small-scale farms into businesses.

An agreement regarding the Rural Development and Modernization Project for the Eastern Region was signed at IFAD headquarters in Rome by José Robert Andino Salazar, El Salvador’s Ambassador to Italy, and IFAD President Lennart Båge.

IFAD will contribute $15 million in loans and a $1 million grant to the programme while the Government of El Salvador will finance the remainder.

Many poor rural families grow fruit, vegetables and nuts, and raise pigs, poultry and cattle, but mostly for household consumption. This project will assist these families in El Salvador, one of the poorest countries in Central America with over half the rural population living in poverty, to transform their farms into for-profit businesses.

Small farmers, microentrepreneurs, artisans and young people will be trained under the programme in leadership and management skills. It will also tackle environmental problems caused by desertification, soil erosion and loss of water quantity and quality by promoting the use of crop residues and conservation of bio-diversity.

The biggest source of El Salvador’s foreign exchange comes from funds sent home by Salvadorans working abroad. Remittances also crucial for poor people in rural areas, and under the IFAD/Inter-Development Bank Multilateral Investment Fund plan, these funds will be channelled into productive investments such as small irrigation schemes, equipment and infrastructure, including rural road repair.