ADF support for rural development

The African Development Fund (ADF) has approved a loan of some US $19.68 million for a project to support rural development in Mali's Mopti region, the African Development Bank (ADB) said in a news release on Wednesday. [The ADF is part of the ADB group.] The project seeks to improve food security and reduce poverty by diversifying and increasing agricultural production and promoting income-generating activities, the ADB reported. It aims to do this by improving the productive capacity of existing irrigation schemes, developing new ones and contributing to the reforestation of some 225 ha of land to protect the environment. It will also improve the quality of 2,600 ha of pasture so as to limit conflicts between livestock farmers and crop growers. Other aims include conducting literacy programmes, promoting farmers' organisations, establishing an agricultural credit fund to help increase agricultural production and promoting income-generating activities for women and youths. The project also hopes to help put in place basic social infrastructure, including boreholes and latrines, and build the operational and institutional capacity of the Mopti Rice Authority, the ADB reported. [END]