UN agriculture fund announces new project in Gabon

The United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) today announced the launch of a new project aimed at helping farmers in Gabon diversify their incomes by developing and marketing new products from staple crops.

The agreement for the $5.7 million loan and $300,000 grant was signed in Rome today and will receive co-financing from the OPEC Fund for International Development, IFAD said.

“The Gabon economy has been heavily dependent on the oil and timber sectors for some time,” said Abdoul Barry, IFAD's country programme manager for Gabon.

“This project will offer concrete opportunities to do that by helping small farmers and their organizations get better access to value chains for products with significant market potential,” said Mr. Barry of the effort to help market products from crops like banana, cassava and peanut.

The project aims to directly benefit 28,000 farmers, half of whom are women and a third young people.