African Dev’t Bank grants €25m to improve agriculture in rural Côte d’Ivoire

The African Development Bank (AfDB) said March 2, 2012 that its Board of Directors has approved a grant of approximately €25 million (CFA 16.4 billion) to Côte d’Ivoire to finance an agricultural infrastructure support project in the Indénié-Djuablin region.

The project, according to the Bank is expected to last five years and has as its goals sustainable growth in major crop production and productivity and improved marketing conditions.

The support project has two major elements – infrastructure development and capacity building in a rural area of Côte d’Ivoire.

The main deliverables of the project are: rehabilitation of 923 hectares of irrigated lowland areas and 620 km of rural roads, the completion of 40 boreholes, the improvement of seven rural water supply systems, and the installation of 100 manual pumps.

Also, two agricultural product consolidation centres, eight collection centres and ten food markets will be built. The project also includes an operator training program and will strengthen technical support services to rural areas.

Approximately 100,000 inhabitants and 9,000 small farms will directly benefit from the  Indénié-Djuablin project, which will also create the equivalent of 3,000 permanent jobs and produce some 60,000 tons of food annually, the AfDB said in a press release.

By Ekow Quandzie