Mozambique | IFAD supports agricultural development

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will apply about USD150 million in the agricultural sector in Mozambique, which will be disbursed over the next five years, beginning in 2018, said the representative of the institution for the country in Maputo last week.

The funding is intended to support small-scale farmers as well as aquaculture, said Robson Mutandi, minutes before the meeting to review the performance of the portfolio of government projects funded by the IFAD.

At the meeting, which was attended by representatives of the Bank of Mozambique, the Ministries of Agriculture and Food Security and Economy and Finance, the investment strategy was drawn up for the next five years.

Mutandi, who also serves as IFAD’s director in South Africa and Botswana, said that the resource allocation strategy will depend on a series of meetings, with Thursday’s being the first meeting but added “we have some ideas where to apply that funding over the next five years,” according to Mozambican news agency AIM.

The Mozambican government and IFAD signed a Country Strategic Opportunities Program (COSOP) in 2011 that established a framework for cooperation that ended in 2015.

IFAD’s current lending portfolio includes support for programs in the agricultural sector, small-scale fisheries, market links, financial services, value chain development and food and nutrition security.

IFAD has disbursed about USD400 million since it began supporting Mozambique in 1983. MDT/Macauhub