IFAD lends US $11 million for food security

Chad is to get a US $11-million loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for the second phase of a food security project in the Northern Guera region, the UN agency said. The deal, signed in Rome, meets part of the overall project cost of US $17.62 million. The remainder is to come from the Belgium Survival Fund for the Third World ($3.68 million), the World Food Programme ($650,000), the Chad government ($1.16 million) and the beneficiaries ($780,000). In addition, IFAD will donate $650,000 to the project. Phase two aims to provide equitable participation of women in decision-making and in the allocation of resources to some 15,000 households and 400 villages in the Northern Guera region. The goal of the project is to promote rural grassroots organisations so that their members can improve food security, their nutritional status and, in general, their lives in a sustainable manner. The first part of the project, IFAD said, covered 298,000 km2 in Northern Guera, a mountainous region. The area is generally savannah with a Sahelian climate characterised by a variety of soils. It is plagued by erosion in the foothills and in the most populated area, IFAD said. “The Northern Guera region is one of the most disadvantaged areas of Chad, due mainly to its poor endowment of national resources and its landlocked location,” IFAD said. Agriculture accounts for 39 percent of the gross domestic product and, IFAD said, because only 10 percent of the country’s arable land is cultivated, there existed “enormous potential” for agricultural development. Although oil has recently been discovered in the south of Chad, its economy remains vulnerable because of its insufficiently diversified agricultural sector, narrow industrial base, weak trade and transportation sector, and a massive shortage of skills, IFAD added.