Rural Income Promotion Programme (PPRR)

The Rural Income Promotion Programme has the aim, through partnership poles between producers/transporters/processors and traders, of increasing the income and food security of the rural inhabitants of Toamasina Province, 87.9 per cent of whom are poor, and enhancing the ability of communities to take charge of their own development.

The target region has significant natural advantages given its exposure to rains, which in particular allows the development of a wide range of high-value export crops. This potential gives producers the possibility of increasing their income and provides excellent opportunities for developing strategic and technical partnerships within the framework of implementation of the regional development programme.

Over recent years, the major exacerbation of rural poverty in these regions has had both short-term and structural causes: the political crisis and the exceptional frequency of cyclones have had a major impact on communities’ living conditions, but poverty is also a result of a stagnation in the cash-crop sector, marked by a lack of restocking and upkeep of plantations, a decline in quality and a fall in the prices for certain crops, especially coffee, leading to a reduction in producers’ income.

As a result, the situation is only getting worse for the poorest producers: abandonment, shrinkage of the local market, increased dependency on the informal financial sector and the tendency of exporters to have a passive attitude to the market are some of the observed phenomena that are associated with the break-down of agricultural commodity chains.
The programme has two specific objectives. The first is to improve small producers’ market access by building up commodity chains and helping them to optimize their produce through:

• Rationalization of collection systems
• Strengthening of their bargaining position
• Improvement in the quality of produce
• Development of partnerships between producers’ groups and commercial operators, especially with a view to increasing the value added to production and introducing new products or labels
• Improvement in product transport conditions

Thus, after two years of operations, seven partnership poles have already been created, serving 36 communes and focusing on as widely varying chains as capsicum, honey, rice, maize, fish and litchi.

The second objective of the programme is to intensify and diversify agricultural production in order to improve yields and develop export crops, for which the region has great potential. To this end, the following activities have been set up:

• Improvement in local governance in order to allow the poorest really to participate in decision-making
• Strengthening of farmers’ organizations
• Improvement in access to rural credit
• Provision of quality agricultural advice
• Financial support to small producers to invest in on-farm and off-farm income-generating activities

This objective is now being achieved with the establishment of four market access centres, which allow the collection, marketing and processing of many products, such as clove, litchi and vanilla.

The PPRR will be evaluated in 2008 and its zone of action will be expanded to neighbouring regions.

Source: IFAD