Integrated Rural Development Project for the Pronorte Region

The project provided 6,000 small farmers' families with greater access to credit, marketing, better infrastructures, and extension and technology services that helped improve their yields and income.

The Pronorte region is a mountainous, highly populated area where available land for farming is scarce. As a result, agricultural soils are over-utilized and progressively lose their fertility. More than 80 per cent of rural poor people in the region depend on agriculture and livestock raising to survive at a subsistence level. The project worked with small farmers who had holdings of less than 35 ha, most of them organized in credit and services cooperatives.

The project also fostered community organizations, encouraging community members, especially women and young people, to participate in decisions affecting their lives.