More than $200 million of UN funding set to benefit poor farmers in 14 countries

Efforts to help smallholder farmers in over a dozen impoverished areas adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions today received a boost of more than $200 million from the United Nations agency working to help the rural poor increase their incomes and improve their communities.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) agreed to finance almost $162 million in loans and over $56 million in grants during a two-day meeting of its Executive Board in Rome.

The projects in the 14 countries which will benefit from the cash injection include a scheme enabling Chad’s water network to support the seasonal movement of shepherds and livestock, a Bangladeshi initiative to encourage small-scale water resource management to increase yields, and a Lebanese proposal to strengthen water harvesting and soil conservation measures.

The Executive Board also approved $3.35 million in grants to international research centres and intergovernmental organizations, and the arm of the UN combating desertification received the second instalment of a $1.25 million grant for selected countries in the Asia and the Pacific region, as well as Latin America and the Caribbean.

IFAD notes that some 75 per cent of the world’s poorest people – around 1 billion women, children and men – live in rural areas and depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihoods.