Agricultural Credit and Export Promotion Project

The project was designed to complement the National Agricultural Extension and Research project. Its goal was to expand the availability of credit and input supplies to smallholders in communal areas. The communal areas were resettled after independence, when disadvantaged members of society – refugees, the unemployed or landless – were allocated plots of government-purchased land to farm. The main crops grown in these areas are maize, cotton, sorghum, millet and groundnuts.

The project worked to:

• help strengthen farmer groups to improve their effectiveness as grass-roots institutions
• ensure that women participated fully in farmer groups and other project activities
• increase production of food, cash and export commodities
• expand and improve cotton processing and post-harvesting facilities
• research the expansion of horticultural products for export markets

Source: IFAD