Sustainable agriculture invites the promotion and practice of economically viable and sustainable agriculture, healthy for the environment and socially equitable.
The signing of the agreement took place in the office of the Minister of State, Minister of Agriculture and Sustainable Development, Adjoumani Kouassi, who signed the agreement on behalf of Cote d’Ivoire, while the FAO Resident Representative, Samy Gaiji, signed for the organization.
The Ivorian Minister expressed his “joy” of signing this project dubbed “Scaling up transformative innovations in food systems, land use and restoration based on cocoa in Cote d’Ivoire, abbreviated SCOLUR-CI.”
This joy is all the greater because the signing of this project comes at a time when the whole world has gathered in Abidjan to seek solutions to the issues of land degradation, desertification and drought in the context of climate change.
Worth more than 5 million US dollars (3.11 billion CFA francs), this project, which will be implemented over five years, should enable the beneficiaries to make the transition from their production system to a more sustainable mode of production and more rewarding in terms of income.
The main objective of the SCOLUR project is to make agriculture, forestry and fishing more productive and sustainable. Its objective is in line with the momentum of the 15th Conference of the Parties on Desertification and Drought (COP15) which is taking place in Abidjan from May 9 to 20, 2022.
Present at the signing of this project, the Deputy Director General of FAO, Ms. Maria Helena Semedo, said that this support aims in the perspective of the Abidjan Initiative, at this COP15, to “make value chains for the agri-food system more sustainable that can bring more benefits, but also ensure sustainability in terms of biodiversity.”
“We want Cote d’Ivoire to continue to produce cocoa (of which it is the world’s leading producer), but to do so in a way that brings benefits to producers, and does not bring danger to the environment,” Ms. Semedo said.
Mr. Gaiji emphasized that “this project is a first step,” hoping that in the coming months, the organization will be able to deploy even more investments in other sectors, but also in cocoa production.
Mr. Adjoumani Kouassi assured that the results obtained could be scaled up in all agricultural production areas of the country, but especially in cocoa production areas.
This should help solve the problems of food security, deforestation and improvement of the income of small-scale farmers. FAO will provide technical support for the implementation of this project.
AP/ls/cgd/lb/abj/APA