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Showing posts with label Brazil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brazil. Show all posts

La cooperación Sur-Sur comienza con el aprendizaje y el intercambio de experiencias

Posted by Francesca Aloisio Thursday, June 29, 2017 0 comments

Dirce Ostroski, Egnaldo Xavier, Carlos Henrique Ramos, Ana Elizabeth Siqueira, Samuler Lyra, Fábio Santiago e Josué Dantas (técnicos del FIDA en Brasil) y Maria Fernanda Arraes (equipo del FIDA en Mozambique)


Después de muchas horas de vuelo, partiendo desde Brasil, llegamos a Maputo, Mozambique. El cansancio del viaje era visible, pero la voluntad de conocer aquella realidad diferente era aún mayor. Apenas terminamos de acomodarnos en el hotel y ya teníamos planes para aprovechar la tarde libre y recorrer la ciudad. Rápidamente descubrimos algo muy precioso: la continua amabilidad y acogida de las personas por donde sea que pasáramos. La distancia geográfica entre Brasil y Mozambique, quedó enseguida cubierta por la proximidad cultural entre nosotros.

Al día siguiente, el 16 de mayo, inició el Taller sobre Capitalización de Experiencias para un Mayor Impacto del Desarrollo Rural, organizado por la oficina del FIDA en Mozambique y el Centro Técnico para la Agricultura y la Cooperación Rural (CTA). Del grupo compuesto por 35 participantes, siete éramos brasileños. Los demás eran representantes mozambiqueños de distintas organizaciones y proyectos, la mayoría vinculados a la implementación de los proyectos apoyados por el FIDA. Nos identificamos rápidamente con nuestros colegas, y la alegría, entusiasmo y creatividad se apropió de la oficina, proporcionando una agradable atmósfera para el aprendizaje.

Nuestro objetivo era conocer una nueva metodología de sistematización de experiencias e iniciativas para el desarrollo rural, para mejorar el análisis, documentación, intercambio y adopción de lecciones y buenas prácticas de los proyectos y organizaciones en las que trabajamos. Fueron cuatro días de continuo aprendizaje y compromiso. La regla era "aprender a hacer haciendo" y sin miedo a equivocarse. Así fuimos, poco a poco, recorriendo el paso a paso metodológico para sistematizar experiencias.

Durante el tercer día, la visita a una comunidad rural –ubicada en el distrito de Moamba- nos hizo reflexionar sobre cuánto tenemos que aprender y compartir. A pesar de las diferencias en el contexto, los problemas afrontados son similares a los que nos enfrentamos en las comunidades rurales en Brasil.

Antes de iniciar el regreso, junto al equipo del FIDA en Mozambique, visitamos al Embajador de Brasil en Mozambique, Sr. Rodrigo Baena. En una conversación agradable, nos habló sobre varios aspectos positivos de la cooperación bilateral entre Brasil y Mozambique. Nosotros relatamos las experiencias de los proyectos del FIDA en Brasil, destacando la prioridad en la producción de alimentos saludables y el fortalecimiento de la agricultura familiar. Al final del encuentro, se estableció el compromiso común de apoyar y sustentar la cooperación Sur-Sur, que posibilite el intercambio de experiencias entre las comunidades apoyadas por el FIDA en Brasil y Mozambique.

Nos despedimos de Maputo llenos de alegría y satisfacción por la experiencia vivida y con el compromiso de regresar en julio, para una segunda etapa de capacitación.

Promoting family farming public policies in Brazil: beyond the main cities

Posted by Francesca Aloisio Wednesday, March 22, 2017 0 comments

By Paolo Silveri, IFAD's Country Programme Manager for Brazil


The need to strengthen the productive and commercial capacity of family farmers in north-east Brazil, one of the poorest regions of the country, was the focus of a forum held in Recife, Brazil, from 15 to 17 March.

The Eighth North-East and Minas Gerais Family Farming Managers Forum was organized by the knowledge-sharing programme Semear (meaning "to sow" in Portuguese), co-financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).

Over three days, we shared the lessons learned from IFAD-funded operations in Brazil with government representatives, civil society, the private sector and family farmers. The forum emphasized the need for the promotion of public policies that favour area-based development in the interior of the country, beyond the main cities.

Brazil is a major agricultural and industrial power with the strongest economy in Latin America and the seventh strongest in the world. Between 2004 and 2013, the proportion of the population living in poverty decreased from 22 per cent to 8.9 per cent. However, today more than 18 million people still live below the poverty line of whom 8 million are extremely poor. In the north-east part of the country, IFAD's intervention area in Brazil, one in four people in rural areas lives in poverty and in many municipalities poverty rates are above 60 per cent, with some reaching 90 per cent.

In order to reverse this situation and facilitate market access for small- and medium-sized cooperatives in this harsh environment, the forum agreed on the need to link technological innovation to family farming and foster specific policies, including technical assistance, extension services, production investments and financial services. Farmers' access to land was also flagged as a sine qua non for sustainable rural development.

This Forum is one of Brazil's main platforms for public policy dialogue on rural development and for fighting poverty in the country. It also serves as a bridge among the different actors involved in decision-making in state governments and the Federal Government.

Networking for scaling up is a key feature of IFAD's country programme in Brazil. This session of the Forum highlighted the lack of a national strategy for rural development, and the consequent need for political leaders and development workers to discuss priorities and harmonize policies across states and regions, to ensure that recent progress against poverty and in favour of smallholder farmers in north-east Brazil does not get lost due to the current economic crisis. Several development options were discussed in Recife, and an in-depth study on how to open markets for small farmers and artisans was also launched and discussed. This type of "hands-on policy dialogue" ensures harmonization and coordination through experience-sharing, originating mainly from IFAD co-financed projects.

Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Fisheries at CBD

Posted by Ricci Symons Monday, December 5, 2016 0 comments

By Brian Thomson

 Fisheries and aquaculture are important contributors to food security and livelihoods at household, local, national and global levels. Today's roundtable on fisheries at the CBD Biodiversity Conference (COP13) in Cancun highlighted that fish already provide essential nutrition for 3 billion people and 50 per cent of protein and essential minerals for 400 million people, mainly in poor countries.

Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy Director General of FAO, addressing the ministerial roundtable, said that biodiversity conservation is strongly linked to food security and poverty reduction.


"Aquatic systems are enormously biodiverse and a key challenge is increasing production while preserving our natural resources and dealing with climate change impacts," said Semedo. "We need an integrated approach to restore productive capacity and ecosystems services of our blue world. Mainstreaming biodiversity means a more participatory approach where biodiversity conservation is seen as an incentive. Sustainable management of fisheries should be our common goal and aspiration." 



Fisheries are under high pressure due to human activities including overexploitation, pollution and habitat change. Climate change is compounding these pressures, posing very serious challenges and limiting livelihood opportunities.

For millennia, small-scale fisheries and fish farmers have drawn on their indigenous knowledge and historical observations to manage seasonal and climate variability but today the speed and intensity of environmental change is accelerating, outpacing the ability of human and aquatic systems to adapt.

"Oceans and other water bodies are becoming warmer and may affect nutrient recycling and productivity of fisheries," said Margarita Astralaga, Director of IFAD's Environment and Climate Division. "Localized extinctions may occur if fish cannot migrate to cooler waters, for example, in lake fisheries. Fish migration paths could change, affecting small-scale fishers without suitable vessels to pursue migratory species. Increased spread of disease, reduced oxygen and increased risk of toxic algae blooms and fish kills will impact on aquaculture production."


Sea level rise combined with extreme weather events, like stronger storms, severely threatens coastal communities and ecosystems. Higher water tables and drainage problems may affect brackish-water aquaculture and destruction of fishing and aquaculture assets. There may also be fish escapes, increasing the risk of disease and parasitic infestation of world stock as well as impacting biodiversity.

Some lakes, rivers and water bodies are at risk of drying up. Changes in rainfall patterns and evaporation rates lead to changes in run-off, water levels, water availability and quality, and sedimentation patterns in inland and coastal water bodies, affecting the production of both fresh-water fisheries and aquaculture systems.

"In many cases, it is the poorest communities in the poorest countries that are most vulnerable to these changes," added Astralaga.

Fisheries more than any other modern food production system, depend on the health and natural productivity of the ecosystems on which they are based. Aquaculture, practised on a small-scale in rural areas in developing countries, is also dependent on ecosystem services for feed, seed and adequate supplies of clean water.

"The need to increase resilience to climate change is required for smallholder agriculture as well as for small-scale fisheries and aquaculture," said Astralaga, "IFAD continues to focus on country-led development, community-based natural resources management, gender equality and women's empowerment, access to financial services and markets, environmental sustainability and institutional capacity in the design of its fisheries and aquaculture interventions."

IFAD is integrating climate adaptation and mitigation in its fisheries and aquaculture operations through two multiple-benefit approaches namely; the ecosystem approach and co-management.

Fisheries and aquaculture are of particular concern to IFAD due to their importance to food and nutrition security; their close relationship with the environment and natural resources; their contribution to poverty reduction and employment, often in rural areas of developing countries where alternative economic opportunities are limited, and for gender equity as women dominate the post-harvest aspects of fisheries; and small-scale fishers (including processors) and fish farmers will be among the first to be significantly impacted by climate change.

Case studies – IFAD in action

IFAD supported projects include the Haor Infrastructure and Livelihoods Improvement Programme (HILIP) started in 2013 to support vulnerable communities in the Haor Basin in north eastern Bangladesh, an area faced with extreme climate events including heavy monsoon rains, cyclones, floods, storms and strong winds.

The basin is effectively flooded for six months annually, which seriously interrupt economic activities and their capacity to produce food. The aim of the project is to improve road infrastructure (i.e. bridges, culverts, canals), build local capacity and expand access to natural resources, technology and markets. Other interventions for climate resilience include an early warning system against adverse climate events, a community-based resource management model in priority water bodies ensuring communities have fishing rights, excavation of silted water bodies and establishment of fish sanctuaries and planting swamp trees. The project will also secure employment for poor rural women under infrastructure improvement contracts and it will support women's income-generating activities. Additional financial support has been provided to enhance climate adaptation and resilience through a complementary project, Climate Adaptation and Livelihood Improvement Programme (CALIP).

The Fisheries Resources Management Programme (FRMP) in Eritrea was designed in 2016 and seriously takes environment and climate change vulnerability analysis and risk mitigation measures into account. There is one component addressing coastal ecosystem management through an integrated approach, which includes mangrove planting and management and inter-sectorial  development planning. It will establish a fisheries monitoring, surveillance and management system to ensure effective measures such as gear restrictions, closed areas and seasons and adaptation to eventual changes in the migratory movement patterns of the pelagic fish species. Solar technologies will be promoted for fish preservation and processing. Another component will support inland aquaculture through water reservoirs to increase productive use of the scares water resources in the country (only reservoirs with low risk of water depletion will be used). Fish species with high resistance to local climate related stress will be selected.

Finding and applying management approaches that avoid unsustainable fishing practices and that enable stocks to recover are essential elements in a strategy to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity. A number of key strategic actions for accomplishing this, are being explored during COP13.

The overarching principles of sustainable fisheries have been agreed to, and are stipulated in, a number of international instruments at COP13. These represent a comprehensive global framework for fisheries policy and management and support mainstreaming of biodiversity in fisheries and aquaculture. However, there is a need for the strengthening of fisheries management agencies, particularly with regard to governance and assessment so that biodiversity considerations are explicitly part of their work and accountability, as well as constructive interagency collaboration, and meaningful participation of biodiversity experts and relevant stakeholders in the fisheries management process.

Engaging the fishing sector is critical to the successful implementation of sustainable marine conservation and management measures. The governance of marine fisheries and the conservation of marine biodiversity continue to evolve; coherence between them remains critical if each is to achieve its goals.

Approaches for enhancing the integration of biodiversity and sustainability of fisheries include:

·       Making greater use of rights-based and innovative fisheries management systems, such as community co-management, that provide fishers and local communities with a greater stake in the long-term health of fish stocks;
·       Eliminating, reforming or phasing out those subsidies which are contributing to overfishing;
·       Enhancing, in each country, monitoring and enforcement of regulations to prevent illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing by flag-vessels;
·       Phasing out fishing practices and gear which cause serious adverse impacts to the seafloor or to non-target species; and
·       Developing marine protected area networks and other effective area based conservation measures, including the protection of areas particularly important for fisheries, such as spawning grounds, and vulnerable areas;

Appropriate approaches for addressing biodiversity considerations in fisheries management will be situation-specific and depend greatly on the capacities and information available. The political will and resources to enable fisheries management agencies to fully deliver on a mandate to address fisheries and biodiversity issues is also needed as is enhanced regional cooperation between fisheries and environmental agencies.

You cannot protect biodiversity without considering agriculture

Posted by Ricci Symons 0 comments

The ministerial round-table on agriculture at the UN's Biodiversity Conference highlighted the immense importance placed on agriculture when discussing protecting biodiversity.

After an opening from Mexico, each country was given an opportunity to share examples of how protecting biodiversity in their respective countries had gone, successes, lessons learned, the next steps and also any issues they wanted aired.
In their opening the Mexican ministry said, “all countries, producers and stakeholders need to take more responsibility.”

They talked about how agriculture consumes a massive percentage of fresh water, and leads to soil degradation, through over-use of fertilisers and deforestation. They highlighted that despite these issues agriculture by necessity was set to expand.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation says that by 2050 we will need to be producing 60 per cent more food. This is not good news for biodiversity because despite significant gains in sustainability agriculture still has an overall negative effect on biodiversity.
Every day though, countries around the world are protecting and regaining biodiversity and it is currently being ‘mainstreamed’ into agriculture.

The Brazilian ministry showcased the incredible advances they have made in the last 16 years. They built on the philosophy that the loss of biodiversity is everyone’s concern, but most especially small producers. They asked themselves how the world will be able to feed nine billion people by 2030 without sacrificing biodiversity? They answered it by protecting water reserves, limiting hunting, integrating native wildlife onto farms and ranches, legally protecting 20 per cent of all farmland and designating it for the protection of native species, investing in innovative technology, research and upscaling.

Brazil has leapfrogged many countries this century to become the first ranked country for protected areas. They have prioritised the protection of biodiversity, implementing biodiversity protection into every aspect of agriculture and are now ‘’encouraging everyone to do the same’’.

“We think that our efforts are commendable and should be replicated. We also believe that international trade needs to be addressed to reward countries who can prove that they are making great strides in protecting the environment.”

The Danish delegation stressed, as many others have, that, “Aichi will expire in 2020, with only four years left we don’t have much time left and must act accordingly.”
Biodiversity is the basis of agriculture. Without biodiversity, there is no agriculture, however agriculture has the ability to completely destroy biodiversity if not managed well.

Denmark finished by highlighting that they believe a major area for concern lies with pollinators being forced towards extinction. There is a win-win here, but in order to achieve it we must “protect bees, butterflies and birds”.

IFAD had a statement for this round-table, delivered by Margarita Astralaga, Director of IFAD's Environment and Climate Division’s. Astralaga highlighted how in agriculture we have lost nearly 75 per cent of crop diversity between 1900 and 2000. Today, only about 15 plants produce 90 percent of the world's food intake.

“Today, IFAD recognizes that loss of biodiversity is a major threat to small farmers and their communities, without biodiversity livelihoods are not sustainable and food security and nutrition for the entire planet is weakening.

"The full IFAD portfolio over the years has contributed to the achievement of most of the Aichi goals, and since 2004 has integrated biodiversity management into its investments in agriculture, livestock and aquaculture. Supporting good water management and soil management, promoting agroforestry and conservation agriculture, and promoting green value chains.”


Top five reasons why we love small farmers

Posted by Beate Stalsett Friday, February 12, 2016 1 comments

Written by Sally Martinelli, Simona Siad and Katie Taft

As different cultures celebrate Valentine's Day, IFAD reminds the world of the importance of investing in small farmers. 

At IFAD, we love investing in small farmers. Some of our reasons may be obvious – small family farms feed up to 80 per cent of the population in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, manage a large share of the natural resources and ecosystems, and support the livelihoods of more than 2 billion people. 

Other reasons might be surprising – for instance, did you know behind each box of chocolate is the important work done by a small farmer?

There are so many reasons we believe the world should also love and support small farmers, but here are our top five reasons.

1. Small farming provides rural youth with job opportunities 

In the Near East and North Africa region, seventeen million young people – more than 20 per cent of the population – are without work. Since young people face the highest rates of poverty, they often move away from home to seek opportunity elsewhere. However, when young people work in agriculture, they not only can support themselves, but are more likely to adopt new technologies. This creates better yields, which in turn allows farmers to continue feeding the world's growing population. Rural youth are an important factor in eradicating food insecurity internationally.

IFAD supports the ambition young people have to not only find employment, but to act as entrepreneurs within the industry. The IFAD Rural Youth Economic Empowerment Programme (RYEEP) combines IFAD's knowledge of rural development with the expertise of two entrepreneurship-focused social enterprises to create employment opportunities for more than 18,000 rural youth between the ages 15 and 35.

2. Small farmers contribute to climate change mitigation 

Climate change is the biggest threat humanity faces today and small farmers are on the front lines to battle it. Rural farmers are guardians of natural resources, often managing vast areas of land and forest. Improving land management and farming practices and planting forests can help lower greenhouse gas emissions. Small farmers are combating the effects of climate change by implementing new farming techniques.

In pursuing its target to reduce 80 million tons of C02e by 2020, IFAD is supporting small farmers with adaptation projects that could reduce emission by 30 million tons. These initiatives includes planting trees and creating natural barriers against flooding and unpredictable rains, using crops that are adapted to resist climate change, and other solutions to address short-and-long-term problems.

3. Small farmers produce much of the world's cocoa (and chocolate) 

The world spends US$83 billion each year on chocolate. Europeans especially love chocolate, eating one kilogram of it every month. This industry depends on the five million small-scale family farmers who grow 90 per cent of the world's cocoa. IFAD is helping cocoa farmers in 12 countries to overcome problems such as pests, disease and unsustainable production methods that harm the harvest and local environment. In São Tomé, IFAD has formed a relationship with the local farmers to connect their high-quality cocoa with Fair Trade buyers such as Kaoka. These efforts have helped nearly 2,000 farming families in São Tomé to revitalize their cocoa industry and produce 1,200 tons of cocoa in 2014.

Fatima, small farmer from São Tomé 

4. Small farmers contribute to global food security 

The population of the planet is expected to grow to almost 9.5 billion people by 2050. Food production will need to nearly double in developing countries to feed this population and address existing hunger and malnutrition. Since most of the world’s farms are small, investing in them will be the only way to address this growing demand.

In Cuba, an IFAD-funded project has organized 157 farming cooperatives to increase the production and productivity of crops such as maize and beans. The Cooperative Rural Development Project in the Oriental Region (PRODECOR) supports the country — which imports 80 per cent of its basic food requirements — to address food insecurity. The population has been impeded by intense drought due to climate change and limited agricultural machinery. With the use of new technologies and the pooling of knowledge, these cooperatives are expected to benefit over 52,000 people.

5. Small farmers preserve biodiversity 

Biodiversity is an essential part of preserving the planet. Changes to an environment such as the loss of a plant or species has the potential to derail the balance of the whole region. When family farmers take the necessary steps to secure their local environment, they not only ensure that their crops yield bountiful harvests, but that there will be future harvests too.

With the support of IFAD, small farmers in Brazil have implemented new agricultural practices that are more environmentally friendly. Over the course of nine years, the region saw a 69 per cent reduction in land erosion, and carbon sequestration ranging from 15 to 79 per cent. In the 20,000 hectares of saved and preserved land, there has been an increase in diverse species of 11 per cent.


Knowledge is central to overcoming poverty in Brazil

Posted by Greg Benchwick Sunday, September 23, 2012 1 comments

IFAD Executive Board approves US$56 million in funding for poverty reduction projects in Northeast Brazil 
The Executive Board of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) recently approved two new rural poverty reduction projects for the Brazilian states of Ceará and Sergipe.

The two projects will benefit over 80,000 poor rural families at a total cost of US$133 million, with US$56 million in IFAD funding.

“The Dom Távora and Paulo Freire Projects are named after famous Brazilian educators and advocates for the poor, and look at knowledge as the central tool to overcoming poverty,” said IFAD’s Country Program Manager for Brazil, Iván Cossio. “Paulo Freire will work in the state of Ceará and focus on providing over 60,000 poor rural families with the tools and training they need to overcome poverty. The Dom Távora Project will be implemented in Sergipe, and focuses on the promotion of rural businesses and capacity building, and will benefit around 20,000 rural households.”

Brazil is an emerging economy with a growing GDP and sustained poverty reduction. Nevertheless, inequality and poverty persist.

About 55 per cent of the rural population in Brazil lives below the poverty line. This percentage increases to 66 per cent in Northeast Brazil, where more than one in three people live in extreme poverty. In some states of the Northeast, this percentage climbs to more than 75 per cent, making this the largest pocket of rural poverty in all of Latin America.

“The two projects will work on the state level to fulfil the federal government’s poverty reduction goals. They have been fully integrated within the framework of the ‘Brazil Without Extreme Poverty Programme’ and will serve to compliment the Bolsa Familia conditional cash transfer program,” Cossio said.

Paulo Freire Project 
The Ceará Secretariat for Agrarian Development will implement the Productive Development and Capacity Building Project in the State of Ceará (Paulo Freire) over six years.

The project will cost a total of US$95 million, with US$40 million in financing from IFAD, US$40 million from the Ceará state government, and US$14.9 in contributions from the beneficiaries themselves.

“The project looks to reduce extreme poverty in the project area from 43 to 28 per cent, grow household assets by 30 per cent, and provide 60,000 households with training, technical assistance and the tools they need to grow their businesses, access markets, protect the fragile semi-arid environment and lower their risk profile,” said Cossio. “We’ve found that an investment in women and youth is an investment in a sustainable future. With this in mind, over half of the project beneficiaries will be women and young people.”

Dom Távora Project 
The Rural Business for Small Producers Project (Dom Távora) will be implemented over six years by the Agricultural Development Enterprise of Sergipe agency under the direction of the Secretariat of Agriculture, Agrarian and Rural Development.

It will cost approximately US$38 million, with US$16 million in financing from IFAD, US$12.6 million from the state of Sergipe and over US$9 million from project beneficiaries.

“The Dom Távora Project focuses on fostering local talents and supporting local businesses, with the goal of increasing incomes, supporting producer’s associations and creating a better life,” Cossio said.


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Comitê Executivo do FIDA aprova financiamento de USD 56 milhões em projetos de redução da pobreza rural no nordeste do Brasil

Posted by Greg Benchwick 0 comments



Projetos Dom Távora e Paulo Freire beneficiarão 80 mil famílias pobres rurais nos estados de Ceará e Sergipe
O Comitê Executivo do Fundo Internacional de Desenvolvimento Agrícola (FIDA) aprovou esta semana dois novos projetos de redução da pobreza rural para os estados brasileiros do Ceará e Sergipe.

Ambos os projetos beneficiarão mais e 80 mil famílias pobres rurais com um custo total de USD 133 milhões e financiamento do FIDA de USD 56 milhões.

“Os Projetos Dom Távora e Paulo Freire receberam os nomes de famosos educadores brasileiros e defensores dos pobres, e tem o conhecimento como pilar central para a superação da pobreza,” alegou o Gerente de Programas do FIDA para o Brasil, Sr. Iván Cossio. “O projeto Paulo Freire irá trabalhar no Ceará e tem como objetivo prover mais de 60 mil famílias pobres rurais com instrumentos, treinamento e investimentos produtivos necessários para que possam superar a pobreza. O projeto Dom Távora será implementado no Sergipe e focará suas atividades na promoção de negócios rurais e no desenvolvimento de capacidades e beneficiará aproximadamente 20 mil famílias rurais.”

O Brasil é uma importante economia emergente com GDP crescente e demonstra contínuas taxas de redução da pobreza. Porém, a desigualdade e pobreza persistem no país.

Por volta de 55 por cento da população rural do Brasil vive abaixo da linha da pobreza. Esse percentual aumenta para 66 por cento na região nordeste do Brasil, onde uma em cada três pessoas vivem em pobreza extrema. Em algumas áreas do nordeste, esse percentual aumenta para mais de 75 por cento, tornando essa região no maior bolsão de pobreza de toda América Latina e Caribe.

“Os projetos irão trabalhar em nível estadual de modo a atingir os objetivos federais de redução da pobreza. Os projetos foram integrados no contexto do programa federal Brasil sem Miséria e trabalharão em consonância com as políticas públicas voltadas aos pequenos agricultores,” afirmou Cossio.

Projeto Paulo Freire
A Secretaria de Desenvolvimento Agrário (SDA) do Ceará implementará o Projeto de Desenvolvimento Produtivo e de Capacidades no Estado do Ceará (Paulo Freire) no período de seis anos.

O projeto tem custo total de USD 95 milhões, com USD 40 milhões de financiamento do FIDA, USD 40 milhões do Estado do Ceará e USD 14,9 milhões de contribuição dos beneficiários.

“O projeto busca reduzir a pobreza extrema na área do projeto de 43 a 23 por cento, incrementar os bens familiares em 30 por cento e prover 60 mil famílias com treinamento, assistência técnica e investimentos produtivos necessários para aumentar os seus negócios, acessar mercados, proteger o ambiente frágil do semiárido e reduzir o perfil de risco das famílias”, comentou Cossio. “Nós achamos que investimento em mulheres e jovens é um investimento no futuro sustentável. Com isso em mente, mais da metade dos beneficiários do projeto serão mulheres e jovens.”

Dom Távora Project

O Projeto de Negócios Rurais para Pequenos Produtores (Dom Távora) será implementado em seis anos pela Empresa de Desenvolvimento Agropecuário de Sergipe (EMDAGRO), com a direção da Secretaria da Agricultura e do Desenvolvimento Rural (SEAGRI).

O custo do projeto será de aproximadamente USD 38 milhões, com USD 16 milhões em financiamento do FIDA, USD 12,6 milhões do Estado de Sergipe e mais e USD 9 milhões dos beneficiários do projeto.

“O Projeto Dom Távora centralizará suas atividades em estimular talentos locais e apoiar negócios rurais com o objetivo de aumentar a renda, apoiar associação de produtores e criar uma vida melhor,” disse Cossio.




This is Brazil

Posted by Greg Benchwick Monday, September 17, 2012 0 comments

Understanding social equity with Iván Cossio

In this incisive interview IFAD's Country Program Manager for Brazil, Iván Cossio, highlights the Brazilian experience. Along the way, we learn more about the specific context of rural poverty in this emerging economy, and how investment in social equity and citizenship can help poor rural people to overcome poverty. We also learn about innovative IFAD-funded projects designed to tackle issues of climate change, knowledge management, market access and more.


Learn more
Two projects from Brazil will be reviewed by the IFAD Executive Board in its September Session. Check out the project design reports and learn more on our events page.  



Watch more videos from Brazil


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See how Gini Indexes stack up over the years based on lending type and region.


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Webcast - Rio + 20 journalist workshop

Posted by Greg Benchwick Tuesday, May 8, 2012 1 comments



Workshop for Journalists from Latin America and the Caribbean towards the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development 

Schedule
May 8 (Mexico time) 
16:30 - Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women on gender in Rio + 20.
17 - Panel on green economy

May 9
10:00 horas  - Access and sustainable management of water
11:30 horas - Agriculture and food security: keys to sustainable development
12:00 horas - Organization of Rio + 20
12:30 horas - Update on Rio +20
13:30 horas - Logistics for journalists
14:00 horas - The position of Paraguay
15:15 horas - Civil society
16:00 horas - Panel on energy
17:00 horas - The Caribbean in Río+20
17:30 horas - Preparations for Rio+20 with Jorge Chediek, Resident Coordinator UN Brazil

A two-day workshop for journalists from Latin America and the Caribbean, with participation of more than 15 United Nations Agencies, as well as representatives from various governments and civil society, will address the themes and media logistics of the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). The purpose this event is to provide the media with the necessary information and tools to monitor, directly from Rio de Janeiro or from a distance, the multiple means available to cover the Conference. The workshop will take place the 8 and 9 May from 9am to 5pm CDT (Mexico City local time), in which high-level experts from different locations will discuss the themes on the agenda of Rio+20. Including, Labour, Energy, Water, Cities, Disasters, Health, Gender, Environment, Sustainability and many more from a journalistic perspective. Logistics of media participation, including accreditations, accommodations, online resources, media facilities, official programme, parallel events, and others will also be addressed, with a view to facilitating the media participation.

'To remain always a child'

Posted by Greg Benchwick Monday, May 7, 2012 1 comments

Video documentation in Latin America highlights lessoned learned from projects past and present
Learning from our past to guide how we work in the future is a central pillar to IFAD's operations and knowledge management practices in the Latin America and the Caribbean region. Truly, as Cicero taught us… "To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it be woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?"

In order to expand this knowledge base, learn from our history and promote inter-institutional dialogue, we are making a concerted effort to share the lessons learned from the projects we fund across the region through video documentaries, reports, newsletters and more.

One of the first steps here has been resuscitating the video documentaries from projects we’ve funded in the past. In the embedded video playlists below, you’ll find see over 40 videos that document rural empowerment projects in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, Nicaragua, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. We hope these videos serve as an institutional record and historic marker as we continue our efforts to learn from our past and build on our future. 

Argentina

Bolivia

Brazil

Colombia

Haiti

Nicaragua

Mexico

Peru

Uruguay

Venezuela


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High-level Brazilian delegation visits IFAD to discuss new rural poverty reduction project for the state of Sergipe

Posted by Greg Benchwick Thursday, October 13, 2011 0 comments



Governor Marcelo Déda Chagas meets with IFAD Vice-President to push project forward
A high-level Brazilian delegation met with International Fund For Agricultural Development (IFAD) Vice-President Yukiko Omura, IFAD’s Director of Latin America and the Caribbean Division Josefina Stubbs and other senior IFAD staff October 12 to hammer out details of the new US$37.8 million Small Producers Rural Business Project, better known in Brazil as Project Dom Tavora.

The Brazilian delegation included Sergipe Governor Marcelo Déda Chagas, Secretary of Agriculture and Agrarian Development José Macedo Sobral and the President and Director of the Agricultural Development Agency Jefferson Feitozza de Carvalho.

“This project looks to fight rural poverty in a sustainable way by helping businesses and small-scale producers to improve their productivity and technical capabilities, and access new markets and financial services,” said Iván Cossio, IFAD Country Program Manager for Brazil. “At the same time, we are looking to build the technical capacity within the vary agencies that will be implementing the project, thus ensuring the project’s long-term viability.”

During the visit, the governor gave a presentation to IFAD staff on the Brazil Without Extreme Poverty Program (Brasil Sem Miseria), underlining how the national program works in the state of Sergipe and how it could work in conjunction with new IFAD-funded projects in the region.

“Finding ways to effectively coordinate IFAD-funded programs with these massive government programs will be key to ensuring strong results on the ground and long-term sustainability for these initiatives,” Cossio said.

The Dom Tavora Project is slated to benefit some 32,000 poor rural families in 15 municipalities in the State of Sergipe. Approximately 12,000 families will receive direct support from the project while another 20,000 will benefit from the improved technical assistance offered by the implementing agency.

The IFAD Executive Board is expected to review the project this December. The project benefits from a US$16 million IFAD loan to the State of Sergipe, with the Government of Sergipe providing another US$12.6 million. Project beneficiaries will provide another US$9.2 million in financing.

“The Sergipe Project is especially innovative as its principal strategy is based in catalysing and stimulating growth for businesses run by small-scale producers. Given the right support, these small-scale producers are capable of creating efficient, sustainable and profitable businesses,” Cossio said. “And as we’ve seen throughout the world, treating agriculture as a business is one of the most effective means to reduce rural poverty.”
Photos: ©IFAD/Publifoto

Day 3 – Conservation Agriculture Success? Institutional Partnerships with research and farmers at the center

Posted by Jeffrey A Brez Wednesday, July 13, 2011 4 comments

Today we visited a thriving smallholder farm as well as IAPAR’s research station in Pato Branco. In the 1970s and 1980s Parana State was losing 100 tonnes of soil per hectare per year - that’s a loss rate of 1 centimetre/ha per year, while it takes nature 400 years to make 1 centimetre per year of soil! (source: IAPAR, Parana State Agricultural Research Institute) Something needed to be done.

So in the early 1970s, soon after Herbert Bratz made his pioneering trip to the USA, IAPAR began research into conservation agriculture methods. What has become crystal clear to the workshop participants, is that integrated institutional partnerships – with farmers themselves and their associations and cooperatives at the center– are necessary for changing mindsets and affecting change. The hard work paid off beginning in the early 1990s when the number of hectares under CA began to skyrocket.


One of the keys to the success of CA in Parana state was a focus on its crop-livestock systems. Not only permanent soil cover, but also more livestock forage was necessary, and IAPAR’s research helped determine which winter crops could best serve as both cover crops and forage for dairy cattle. Before 1992 there was almost no no-till in Parana State, while now, 20 years later, it is almost all no-till. Of course, IAPAR has not achieved this alone – it has worked with the national extension service, EMATER, with EMBRAPA, with municipalities, with SEAB, with FEBRAPDP, often sharing and embedding staff.

Iapar presentation day 3 conservation agriculture virtual field workshop in brazil

On the bus ride back to town, participants from AGRA (Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa) and Lesotho stressed that demonstrations need to be guided by researchers and extension staff, but also carried out in farmers’ fields, so farmers can see firsthand the comparative advantages, benefits and costs of adopting conservation agriculture. An EMBRAPA participant enthusiastically agreed, saying this was the modus operandi in Parana State and elsewhere in Brazil.

Pictured at left, (Marietha Owenya, SARI, Tanzania) Marc Corbeels (CIRAD) and Waltteri Katajamaki (IFAD).

Day 2 – Reflections from Mauritania, Mozambique and Tanzania + more demos!

Posted by Jeffrey A Brez 1 comments

In the 1970s and 1980s, Parana State was seeing extreme erosion. When farmers lost their soil, they lost their farms, and began moving to urban areas in large numbers. Conservation Agriculture was a key part of the solution, strongly supported by all levels of government, including Parana State, to stop the desperate migration and increase the productivity of the farms, giving farmers a chance to make a livelihood on their land.

Conservation Agriculture: No plough! Use cover crops (continuous soil cover)! Crop rotation! (No burn! )

Because we didn’t have time to download everything yesterday, we are adding the below demonstration videos and interview videos now in a second posting for Day 2 – and also EMATER’s powerpoint.

No till agriculture in parana state brazil-july 2011 by emater




The interview videos below convey the initial impressions of participants after 2 days of workshop and our visit to the Roik family farm. We ask these questions: 1) What is the current situation of conservation in your country today? 2) What do you feel about what you have seen and learned so far here in Brazil? 3) What do you see as the main challenges for scaling up conservation agriculture in your country?

Interview video - Marietha Owenya, Principal Agriculture Field Officer, Selian Agriculture Research Institute (SARI), TANZANIA – English

Interview video - Magalhaes Miguel, Plant Physiologist, Agricultural Research Institute of Mozambique, MOZAMBIQUE - Portugues

Interview video - Mamadou Guye, Secretaire General de l’Association des Usagers du Walo, MAURITANIE - Francais

A note on the knife roller demonstration video we posted in our previous blog: normally the cover crop would be higher. The knife roller “lays down” or “smashes” the cover crop without cutting it, to obtain a slower decomposition and thus retain soil cover for as long as possible, and also to avoid clogging the blade of the Animal Traction Seeder (also featured in our last blog). You can also see a photo of a knife roller in action in a taller cover crop IAPAR’s powerpoint in our Day 3 blog (coming soon!).

As a bonus, we are posting two more demonstration videos – very short – just in case you’ve never seen a “Fitarelli” Manual Jab Seeder or a manual sprayer in action.

Demonstration video: Manual Jab Seeder

Demonstration video: Manual Sprayer

And as an even bigger bonus, we spoke with Ataides Fitarelli (in photo) who joined our workshop. His grandfather Reinaldo invented the first manual jab seeder before traction animals were available. He said, “The jab seeder was much easier to use on the slopes and made the work easier for the smallholder farmers – it helped them to feed themselves. Today, we continue to produce for the smallholder market, the large industries don’t invest in them. We produce about 10,000 jab planters per year and we export our various products – www.fitarelli.com.br – to more than 50 countries.”

Day 2: Conservation Agriculture South-South “Virtual” Field Workshop in Brazil: First Demonstrations

Posted by Jeffrey A Brez Tuesday, July 12, 2011 5 comments

Today we travelled from Curitiba to Irati to learn how Conservation Agriculture has been scaled up by government and communities. EMATER made an excellent presentation in the morning (will post it later, having technical problems now), then in the afternoon the Roik family welcomed us to their 24-hectare conservation agriculture farm, where we saw demonstrations of manual and animal powered tools (see videos below).

Agro-ecological info: Irati is about 900 meters above sea level and is a sub-tropical forested area. It receives approximately 1700 mm of rainfall per year (1000 in summer, 700 in winter). The sedimentary soils are very acidic with high stone content, low declivity and an abundance of steep slopes . Main crops are maize, common beans, tobacco and wheat.

About half an hour’s drive from Irati town centre, in a dramatic green and hilly landscape we arrived at Vittorio Roik’s family farm. The farm is the average size for a family farm in the region, and is completely under CA cultivation. Roik’s son and daughter-in-law work on the steep hills cultivating various crops, while Roik and his wife concentrate on milk production. Today the farm is a model CA farm, used as an example by IAPAR, but ten years ago everything was different.

In 2001 Vittorio was invited to participate in an event organized by EMATER and IAPAR in Ponta Grossa to learn and see what CA can do to yields. He came out of the event impressed, and initially planted half hectare of maize using CA methods. Seeing significant yield increases, the family decided to adopt CA on the entire 24 hectares. This was not an easy decision, as the initial investment on the necessary equipment such as the no-till seeder and knife roller were expensive. But the family together agreed to sell their only cow in order to be able to shift completely to CA.

This brave decision proved to be the right one for the Roik family. They have been able to diversify from original maize and beans to include onions, tomatoes and tobacco, and now they have over twenty heads of cattle that provide over 200 litres of milk every day. While the yields before the shift to CA on the farm averaged 2000 kg/ha, now the farm produces up to 10,000 kg/ha, an impressive improvement in the production levels.

Demonstration Video: Knife Roller

Demonstration Video: Animal Traction Seeder

In addition to the demonstration videos, later today we will introduce three workshop participants from Tanzania (Marietha Owenya - English), Mozambique (Magalhaes Miguel - Portugues) and Mauritania (Mamadou Guye - Francais) who will share their impressions each day.

read Day 1 blog

read Workshop Introduction blog

Day 1: Conservation Agriculture "Virtual"Field Workshop in Brazil

Posted by Jeffrey A Brez Monday, July 11, 2011 0 comments

Read Introductory Blog for Workshop

On the morning of the opening day of the workshop the group of around 25 workshop participants gathered in the conference room of a Curitiba hotel. Many had travelled for over 24 hours to reach Curitiba, but soon after breakfast we were up and running with the day’s programme. Much of it concentrated on the background on conservation agriculture (CA), and challenges that African countries are facing in its adoption.

Herbert Bartz (at left), a pioneer conservation agriculture adopter in Brazil in the early 1970's (and now President of the Brazilian CA Federation), told the group how he borrowed money to visit an American farmer in Kentucky to learn about CA, and imported the first no-till planter into Brazil.

In his presentation, Dr. Abednego Kiwia, a soil health programme coordinator of AGRA, stated that a major challenge for smallholder agriculture in Africa today is poor soil fertility and consequent low productivity levels. This, he said, due to numerous reasons, including diverse agro-ecologies and farming systems, limited national R&D capacity, over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture, and inadequate enabling of agricultural policies and investments. The presentations of seven AGRA-projects participating in the workshop further identified problems for African agriculture, including high levels of food insecurity, low farm income, unsustainable use of inorganic fertilizer, and limited or no market access for both inputs and outputs. Nevertheless, several African participants highlighted positive outcomes from initial CA experiences, including increased yields and improved food security and household income.

Researcher Dr. Marc Corbeels from CIRAD provided an analysis of yield trends in controlled rainfed CA experiments (see his ppt below), highlighting that while long term yield increases are observed, in the short term yields decrease on average, indicating a major hurdle for adoption of CA by poor smallholders. In addition, he said, CA brings trade-offs, including competing uses for crop residues that can lead to excessive removal of ground cover, difficulties in keeping grazing cattle off of the field after harvest, and shifting in labor patterns (less labour is needed for tilling, but more labour input is required for weeding). Also, he noted that due to poor functioning of markets farmers have limited access to necessary inputs, including herbicides and no-till equipment. Finally, he stressed that CA is knowledge-intensive and must necessarily be tailored to a large diversity of farmers and agro-ecological conditions.


Corbeels reality check for ca in africda project breadbasket field workshop in brazil 10 07_2011










Stephen Lyimo from Tanzania emphasised that the adoption of CA required a change in mindsets for smallholders: they need to be shown both the yield and income analysis before changing their strategies. Finally, as Patrick D’Addario from the organizing LaGuardia Foundation noted, while the participants will see plenty of options during the workshop, there is not a recipe to follow, "nothing to copy:" each project must find local solutions for uptake and upscaling of CA.

Stay with us for Day 2. From tomorrow, we will have our first demonstration: weed control through the use of cover crop and the use of the knife roller!!

Don't miss the demonstration video and reactions from our representative voices from Tanzania, Mozambique and Mauritania.

You're Invited: A Conservation Agriculture "Virtual" Field Workshop in Brazil - starts SUNDAY July 10, 2011

Posted by Beate Stalsett Wednesday, July 6, 2011 10 comments


posted on behalf of Jeff Brez

Please join Project Breadbasket, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the Brazilian No-Till Federation (FEBRAPDP), EMATER, the LaGuardia Foundation and other partners on a six-day "South-South learning journey" to Parana State to support scaling up of conservation agriculture (CA) among smallholders in Africa. My name is Jeff - responsible for environment and climate learning at IFAD - and I'll be your virtual classmate, linking you directly to the participants.


We will share our daily activities with you each day via blog posts with photos, video interviews and video demonstrations (technology permitting). We hope you will share your experiences, expertise and feedback via social media along the way. Don't be shy - send us your questions!

How can you participate virtually? You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and on this blog. You can either post your comments here on the blog, or send them as a tweet to @IFADnews (#ENRM). Last but not least you can also post your comment on our Facebook page.
I'll do my best to share the perspectives of the participants - from Brazil, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Among the contributors to the workshop we also find technical experts from Brazil (FEBRAPDP, EMBRAPA and the Parana State agricultural agency IAPAR). The objective is ambitious: explore how to scale up CA approaches to benefit over 420,000 smallholders in Africa.
So, between now and Sunday the 10th July (Day 1 of our reporting back to you) send us your comments and questions - feel free to be very specific. We also appreciate if you will share with us below good links on conservation agriculture (a favorite publication, paper or article). You can comment in FRANÇAIS, ESPAÑOL, and PORTUGUÊS, as well as ENGLISH. We are looking forward to your active participation in this exciting South-South cooperation initiative.