The Minister of State, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani and the representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Samy Gaiji, signed, Wednesday, May 11, 2022 in Abidjan, a project for “scaling up transformative innovations in food systems, land use and cocoa-based restoration in Côte d’Ivoire (SCOLUR -CI)”, at a cost of 3.5 billion FCFA.
This signature, which takes place during the period of COP 15 in Abidjan, took place in the office of the Minister of State in the presence of the Deputy Director General of the FAO, Maria Helena Semedo.
This project, worth more than five million US dollars, or 3.5 billion FCFA, will be carried out over five years. It will enable the beneficiaries to make the transition from their production system to a more sustainable and more rewarding mode of production in terms of income.
A happy beneficiary, Minister of State Adjoumani hailed the UN agency which, in the space of two years, has been able to mobilize expertise, work intelligently with the services of the various technical ministries involved and mobilize partners for the finalization of this project which is part of the vision of the Abidjan call for COP 15.
“The results obtained can be scaled up in all agricultural production areas, but especially in cocoa production areas. They will make it possible to solve the problems of food security, deforestation and improvement of the incomes of small agricultural producers”, indicated Mr. Adjoumani, welcoming the good cooperation between his department and the FAO.
The FAO Deputy Director General clarified that this project is a vision of President Alassane Ouattara to make value chains or agri-food systems more sustainable, contribute to biodiversity and bring added value to cocoa.
She wished for its proper implementation in order to motivate the organization to look into other value chains, in particular cashew, market gardening in future projects.
The FAO representative in Côte d’Ivoire, Samy Gaiji promised that this project is a first stone in the building of value chains, hoping that in the coming months the organization will deploy more investments in other sectors.
Source: Agence Ivoirienne de Presse