Agriculture and rural development

Selected references

Agriculture is a vital sector for most emerging or developing countries. Besides its role in economic development, it is, for hundreds of millions of the rural poor, the key to food security and their main source of income.

In emerging countries, agriculture often offers the best possibilities for increasing the revenues of a large proportion of the population.

It is therefore crucial to support farmers and their organisations in the production, processing and marketing of agricultural produce, and to promote sustainable rural development that respects natural resources and the people that depend on them.

The assignments led by Ginger SOFRECO in this field over the last 3 decades follow these principles. They mainly include studies (feasibility, evaluation) and technical assistance in the following areas:

Agricultural policy and institutional building

• Support for the definition of agricultural policy and for planning and programming.
• Organisation of the ministries in charge of agriculture and animal production.
• Setting up and strengthening of support and training organisations.
• Design of economic and statistical information systems.
• Setting up of food insecurity prevention mechanisms.
• Support for the implementation and evaluation of the Common Agricultural Policy.
• Cadastre, land policy and land markets.

Support for the production and marketing of agricultural produce

• Development of production techniques (selection of plants, agricultural machinery, crop rotation, soil fertilisation, protection of crops, irrigation), and processing and storage techniques.
• Marketing support: study of the potential of value chains, marketing strategy, quality and certification of produce, market and price information systems.
• Development of livestock farming: support for the production, processing and marketing of animal products, herd management, organisation of animal healthcare, management of competition between livestock farming and agriculture.
• Development of small-scale fishing, support for the creation of production health inspection systems, management of fish stocks, building-up of economic and statistical information systems on fishing.

Structuring and strengthening of the rural world

• Creation and development of producers' associations, training of their members, setting up of joint-trade platforms.
• Participation of women, structuring of women's organisations.
• Rural credit: development of existing credit organisations, networks and conditions, support for the creation of agricultural credit cooperatives.
• Irrigation: design and monitoring of the creation of infrastructures, setting up of collective management systems for such infrastructures, training users on maintenance, resolution of conflicts related to water sharing.
• Support for local development, promotion of sustainable means of existence.