The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has pledged to significantly transform the lives of at least 70 million small-scale farmers.
This IFAD said would be done through increasing their incomes, productive capacity and market access by 2030 as part of the World Bank’s AgriConnect initiative.
The IFAD President, Alvaro Lario, made the pledge at the inauguration of the initiative at the Bank’s Annual Meetings in Washington on Tuesday.
He said that the mission AgriConnect was a new World Bank Group initiative designed to create jobs in agribusiness, transform the livelihoods of 250 million small holder farmers globally and strengthen global food security.
Lario said IFAD was committed to reaching at least 70 million rural producers who would contribute to the overall goal of reaching 250 million small-scale farmers by 2030.
According to him, the project will be undertaken by the World Bank in collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Inter America Development Bank.
“IFAD investments have led to higher incomes, bigger yields, and better market access for small-scale food producers. Delivering that triple impact; we will target at least 70 million people in rural and fragile areas.
“IFAD, World Bank, other Multilateral Development Banks, governments and private sector partners share a common ambition.
“To match scale with meaningful impact by better connecting small-scale food producers to markets and turning rural areas into engines of growth, jobs, and food security.
“IFAD brings almost 50 years of knowledge and experience of exclusively investing in rural communities in the most remote and fragile rural areas where poverty and hunger are deepest.
“These are also the areas in which the return on investments in economic growth, food security and social stability is high,” Lario said.
He said IFAD’s experience showed that investing in deep rural areas could be transformational, with many IFAD projects leading to an income gain of 50 per cent for farmers, according to the latest IFAD Impact assessment.
Lario said that projects IFAD invested in between 2022 and 2024 which were assessed, showed small-scale food producers average income grew by 34 per cent, their production grew by 35 per cent, and their access to markets increased by 34 per cent.
He said that for nearly 50 years, IFAD engaged with the local private sector focusing on value-chains development and rural financial institutions with 70 per cent of its projects engaging with local businesses between 2019-2023.
Lario said that by bundling expertise from the private sector, IFAD investments helped farmers boost production and resilience, access know-how, technology and markets.
He said that recently, IFAD boosted its capacity to lend directly to the private sector and de-risk investments for catalytic small- and medium size enterprises (SMEs) and rural financial institutions.
He not s that this was done to scale impact and create economic opportunities and jobs for rural communities.
The president said IFAD had also invested in green jobs, digital innovation, rural services and agro enterprises to make agriculture and food systems more attractive to younger generations.
According to him, IFAD works closely with the private sector to provide mentorship and vocational training, invest in youth-led agri-SMEs and ensure they can access finance and technology.
Lario said as an integrated investment platform for rural people, IFAD connects, assembles, and catalyses finance by bringing together governments, development banks, and private investors to channel resources where they were needed most.
He said that investing in small-scale farmers and rural populations was a powerful engine for economic growth, job creation and global food security and stability.
The president said that evidence showed that growth in agriculture was 2-3 times more effective in reducing poverty than growth in other sectors, with the largest impact among the poorest people.
Lario said the rural communities were home to 80 per cent of the world’s poorest people, and faced challenges from climate shocks to lack of access to inputs, technologies, financial services, and holding immense untapped potential.
According to him, meeting the growing demand for food projected to surge by close to 60 per cent by 2030 cam generate an estimated 10 trillion dollars in annual economic opportunities by 2050.
He said that Africa’s agribusiness sector could reach one trillion dollars by 2030.
Lario said that in the coming decade, 1.2 billion young people would enter the job market in developing countries.
He said that Agri-food systems already provided employment for 40 per cent of the global workforce.
According ti him, with targeted investment, food systems can generate millions of additional jobs across value chains, from input supply and logistics to processing and retail.
