ICCO, Mastercard foundation teans up to support farmers in Senegal

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Category: Food, Kitchen & Hotel Supplies

Published on Monday, 26 October 2020 09:44

Written by Super User

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ICCO Cooperation and the Mastercard Foundation have teamed forces to support smallholder farmers in Senegal who were left reeling from the impact of COVID. The COVID Recovery and Resilience Agrifinance Project (CORRAP), co-created with Senegalese producers, aims to support smallholders to recover from the pandemic and emerge stronger and more resilient to future crises and shocks.

The strategy relies on producer organizations and actors in agricultural value chains working together to help increase agricultural productivity, and to increase the empowerment of producers including young people and women.

The COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Project (CORRAP) will see several stakeholders (ICCO Cooperation, the Mastercard Foundation, and producer organisations, stakeholders in the rice, millet, sorghum, maize and cowpea value chains, as well as potato and onion producers) combine their efforts to facilitate:

Sustainable access to quality inputs:

Continuous quality e-training and capacity building services through the digitalization of agricultural value chains, and

Access to market through the promotion of digital services.

An anticipated 80 000 smallholder farmers across 11 regions in Senegal will benefit from the project as their resilience is strengthened and their resources are mobilised to produce in the next two agricultural campaigns.

“For smallholder farmers to thrive, there is an urgent need for increased investment in the production of adapted certified seeds by strongly supporting research institutes like ISRA. By doing so, smallholders in synergy with the value chain actors will make a sustainable contribution to food and nutrition security in Senegal,” said Idrissa BA, ICCO Cooperation Country Lead in Senegal

The "COVID Recovery and Resilience Agrifinance Project" is a 2,5-year project, with a commitment of USD 3,38 million from the Mastercard Foundation. Partners in this project include farmers networks, producer organisations, digital products providers, and other relevant stakeholders such as public agriculture agencies , business development services, financials services providers and MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises).