Tunis — The African Development Fund (ADF) has agreed to provide financial resources in support of efforts to revive Sierra Leone's agricultural sector and rehabilitate its rural infrastructure that bore the brunt of the long conflict in the country.
The Board of Directors of the Fund on Wednesday in Tunis approved a loan of 10 million Units of Account (UA*) equivalent to US$ 15.53 million, and a grant 2 million UA, equivalent to US$ 3.10 million to finance the country's Agricultural Sector Rehabilitation Project (ASREP).
The project, which aims at increasing agricultural production and improving farmers' income, has three main components:
Agricultural Production Support
CapacityBuilding
Project Coordination and Management.
The objective is to turn around the agricultural sector by enabling farmers to return to the farm and provide the infrastructure and institutions required to make the sector operational. The delivery of agricultural services will particularly be based on structures existing in rural communities.
The project will use a community-driven development approach, with the active participation of the project beneficiaries in the implementation and monitoring of the interventions.
More than one third of the country made up of five of its twelve districts and accounting for 35% of the population will benefit from the project. The primary beneficiaries are smallholder farmers in the districts, already organized or to be organized into viable Farmer Groups. Direct beneficiaries of the project are 20,000 farm families (roughly 140,000 people). Most of these farmers are just returning to their land after having been displaced by the war. A majority of the returnees are women who are the major players in the planned project activities.
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They will also benefit from the improved infrastructure by being able to transport the agricultural inputs easily to the farms and evacuate the produce. Women would also take advantage of training programmes and rehabilitated markets. Private entrepreneurs will be involved in the supply of farm inputs, marketing, transportation and processing of agricultural products and generally reinforce the economic activity of the region. Overall, the project will increase agricultural production and improve farmers' incomes, reduce poverty and enhance food security. At the same time, the involvement of the community in the establishment of rural infrastructure will help improve livelihoods by providing rural health services, adult literacy as well as HIV/AIDS and Malaria awareness programmes.
The ADB Group operations in Sierra Leone commenced in 1969. Its commitments in the country stand at US$ 351 million for 39 operations.
