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Add to Preferred SourcesThe International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) announced support for a new project to reduce poverty and increase production and incomes for more than 88,000 rural small-scale fish farmers through aquaculture.
Mozambique’s climatic conditions are favourable to the development of aquaculture. The country is home to a wide variety of fish, which can be farmed and thus help to address the country’s nutritional challenges, as well as providing exports for regional markets. Aquaculture development in the country has been challenging due to the lack of access to inputs such as fish feed, seeds, and financial services.
This US$49 million project aims to move the aquaculture sector from a subsistence basis to a commercial level, underpinned by the involvement of small-scale farmers, particularly women and unemployed young people ready to embrace “aquapreneurship.” The project will contribute to livelihood development, food security and resilience, all of which are critical for Mozambique in achieving several Sustainable Development Goals, including no poverty, zero hunger, gender equality and life below water (SDGs 1, 2, 5 and 14).
Funding includes an $8.6 million loan and $34.4 million grant from IFAD. In addition, the Government of Mozambique is providing $3.1 million, with a further $2.9 million contributed by beneficiaries themselves.
The project will promote a range of sustainable fish production technologies such as earthen ponds, use of solar and wind-generated energy along the cold chain, fishponds integrated with livestock and crops, cage culture in large inland water and modern aquaponics systems. It will establish and consolidate local commercial input supply networks for fish feed and fingerlings at competitive and affordable prices.
Since 1983, IFAD has invested more than $386.47 million in 15 rural development programmes and projects in Mozambique worth a total of almost $585million. These interventions have directly benefited 2,391,789 rural families.
Original source: IFAD
Published on 10 February 2020