Japan donates rice for anti-poverty project

The government of Japan handed over 2,647 mt of rice on Tuesday to the World Food Programme (WFP) for an agricultural project aimed at reducing poverty and promoting food security in some of Cote d'Ivoire's most impoverished areas.

The Lowlands Management Project (PBF- Project d'amenagement des Bas-Fonds) targets populations in seven districts considered by the World Bank to be the poorest parts of Cote d'Ivoire. Participants grow rice and vegetables with help from WFP and other partners. Some of the harvested crops, which include tomatoes and eggplants, are consumed locally, while the surplus is sold.

The donated rice, which the ambassador of Japan handed over to WFP during an official ceremony at Abidjan port, will be used for a Food-for-Work strategy that consists of encouraging and rewarding those who produce the most. The strategy also ensures that families do not run out of food between harvests.

In addition to reducing poverty and achieving food security, the project aims to boost the role of women in the community, promote rural development and reduce off-season migration, mostly by men. Fifty percent of participants are women, WFP Country Director Trudy Bower-Pirinis told IRIN on Tuesday.

The PBF project is being implemented in Bondoukou and Bouna in the northeast, Bouake, Dabakala and Katiola (centre), and Daoukro and M'bahiakro (east central).

Tuesday's donation was the second by the Japanese government since the project, still in its pilot phase, started in 1999. Thus far, Japan has donated 5,300 mt of rice, Ambassador Yuji Kurokawa said at the ceremony. The pilot phase, expected to end in December, is financed solely by the Japanese government, to the sum of US $11.9 million.