• Agricultural development

LOCATION

Cameroon (2014), Ivory Coast (2015), Liberia (2020)

Thomas Michel

Rural Development program manager

thomas.michel@iecd.org

Agricultural development

Context

Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for nearly 65% of poor working adults.1

The agricultural sector accounts for nearly 30% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.2

1 World Bank 2016, 2 IFAD 2019

The vision of the program

Supporting family farms towards more sustainable and lucrative models through support services for innovation and integration into promising markets.

Identify and design support levers at the sector level

In Cameroon, the APOHN project supports the structuring of the market gardening sector and helps the farmers. In 2020, the social enterprise “Potagers de Bafou” managed to maintain its purchases from a network of 80 suppliers.

In Ivory Coast, the TAMCI project supports farmers in their transition toward agroecological practices that are environmentally friendly and income-generating. In 2020, the project trained 70 farmers in agroecology.

A four-pillars approach

  • Understand

    Conducting a sector analysis to identify producers’ strategies and develop operation methods to help them seize new opportunities.

  • Test

    Carrying out testing procedures in stations or with experimental producers to design and validate innovative practices’ technical and economic feasibility.

  • Support

    Several levels of training adapted to each audience and complemented by individualized monitoring to support the adoption of new practices and meet market requirements.

  • Valorize

    Supporting the relay producers in their marketing through social enterprises.

The results

Since 2015

In 2020

1000

farmers supported

198

farmers supported

80%

adoption of new practices.

130

relay farmers had access to a support service panel.