IFAD financing aims to increase farmer production and value chain access

AMMAN — The International Fund for Agricultural Development-funded (IFAD) Rural Economic Growth and Employment Project (REGEP) is set to see additional financing starting in 2020, with support for its new design coming from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) Investment Centre Division. 

According to an FAO statement on Tuesday, the overall goal of REGEP is to reduce poverty, vulnerability and inequality in rural areas. Its development objective is the creation of productive employment and income-generating opportunities for the rural poor and vulnerable, especially youth and women. 

The project’s approach is based on targetting smallholders, rural entrepreneurs, the unemployed and underemployed in rural areas either as individuals or through existing and new associations, according to the statement.

REGEP’s additional financing, “will strengthen links” between Jordan’s agriculture sector and markets, including those for exports and tourism, by enhancing market access and climate resilience for micro, small and medium-sized agriculture and community agro-processing enterprises, the statement said. 

Rural producers and service providers “will gain increased access” to climate smart technologies to improve their productivity and receive improvements to basic infrastructure and agro-logistics for enhanced market access, incorporating “critical climate-resilient infrastructure” to promote sustainability, the statement added. 

Implementation of the project will be guided by takeaways from the current phase and feasibility/market studies. More than 11,000 beneficiaries are expected from the additional financing activities, the statement said.

“The project’s additional financing, totalling over $20 million [including government and beneficiary contributions] could also have interesting inter-linkage and cross-support with other national initiatives and with commercial private sector associations…” FAO economist Roble Sabrie was quoted in the statement as saying.

It is expected that once this extended project is “fully on board”, the agricultural and rural sectors will expand and foster the potential for increasing trade and investment in Jordanian agriculture, the statement said.