Rural Business Development Programme

To help reduce poverty in rural areas nationwide, the programme targets small and medium-scale farmers, entrepreneurs, agro-processors, input suppliers, traders and community groups. It gives rural households the opportunities to improve their livelihoods through borrowing and to take advantage of new employment generated by the creation or expansion of rural enterprises.

The programme’s objectives are to produce sustainable income growth in rural areas and small towns, stimulating growth of farming and rural business activities. The focus on economic development in rural areas, as opposed to specifically agricultural development, ensures greater opportunities for rural people to move into more productive farm and non-farm activities.

The development goals of the programme include:

• setting up a network of rural enterprise services such as on-farm and off-farm business advisory services and training for entrepreneurs
• introducing appropriate short-term, medium-term and long-term financing and new financial products for rural communities through commercial banks and microfinance institutions
• supporting grant financing for commercial small-scale infrastructure through public institutions and public-private partnerships

Source: IFAD