Sivas-Erzincan Development Project

The project operates in an area covered by steppe and grassland

in two of Turkey’s least-developed provinces. Sivas, the larger of the two, is the largest province in the country. The target population, which represents 12 per cent of rural people in the two provinces, comprises the poorest people in the area.  Their livelihoods depend on exploitation of natural resources, including forest resources that are degraded by overuse. The project gives priority to households headed by women, small-scale farmers with rainfed land and limited livestock, landless households, and small-scale farmers cultivating a combination of rainfed and irrigated land.

The objectives of the project are to:

• increase agricultural productivity and income levels
• expand rural employment opportunities and encourage the individual and group initiatives of smallholders
• build and strengthen self-sustaining institutions involving local poor people such as village development committees and associations
• improve poor people’s living conditions, and especially those of women

IFAD investments support agricultural development, particularly improved crop production, agroforestry and livestock development, as well as training and assistance for participants. Activities empower communities to analyse their productive resources and technical problems, review a range of technological solutions and improvements, and adopt those which will result in increased production.

Source: IFAD