Guyana’s Ambassador to the EU, Patrick Ignatius Gomes and President of IFAD Lennart Bage last week Thursday signed an agreement at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) headquarters in Rome to give assistance to Guyanese small farmers to diversify their agricultural production.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release on Wednesday stated that the new project is geared to assist small farmers to find alternative sources of income in non-traditional agricultural products such as root crops, vegetables, tropical fruits and spices, and livestock products.

Some 5,200 poor rural households from Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and Ten will benefit from better access to financial and other capital services, as well as training in the areas of enterprise development, marketing and organizational and social development.

And the US$6.93M Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Development project to help Guyanese small producers diversify agricultural production and sell their produce at national and international markets is being supported by IFAD through a US$2.8M loan to Guyana.
The loan is on highly concessional terms and a non-reimbursable grant of the same amount, the release said.

The Guyana government will contribute US$850,000 and the project participants themselves will provide an additional US$320,000.

IFAD has so far financed three rural development and poverty eradication projects in Guyana for a total commitment of US$22.2M.

IFAD, a specialized United Nations agency, was created 30 years ago to tackle rural poverty.