The International Fund for Agricultural Development of the United Nations pledged $55 million for two projects aimed at reducing poverty in rural areas of the Philippines.
The Agriculture Department identified the projects as the Convergence of Value-Chain Enhancement for Rural Growth and Empowerment, and Fisheries, Coastal Resources and Livelihood.
The first project aims to reduce poverty incidence in 10 of the country’s poorest provinces.
The initiative, which will receive $25 million from IFAD for the next six years starting in 2016, will benefit over 300,000 agrarian reform farmer-beneficiaries in 11 Agrarian Reform Communities in 10 provinces in Regions 9,11, and the Caraga.
It will also provide financing for farm inputs, tools, packaging and capacity-building and link smallholder farmers with the market in partnership with the Department of Agrarian Reform.
The FishCORAL project, meanwhile, aims to protect the country’s coastal resources by providing livelihood and coastal resource management capabilities to 700,000 inhabitants of 11 bays and gulfs in the Philippines.
