IBSA Fund Annual Report- GUINEA-BISSAU 2

Partners

24 villages; Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; UNDP Guinea-Bissau

Overview

This project focused on reducing poverty and enhancing food security by providing high-yield varieties of rice seeds, rehabilitating low-lying coastal lands and related hydraulic infrastructure, and providing training in food-processing, conservation and commercialization techniques.

Key Achievements

• Partner communities, working closely with the technical officers of the project, improved their knowledge of agricultural techniques, thereby enhancing their production methods and diets.
• Tools for food preservation, transformation and transportation were supplied to partner villages, including 24 rice-peeling machines, 24 mills, 6 fruit driers and 80 donkey carts.
• Productivity in lowlands was improved through PVC tube-based, small-scale hydraulic enhancements regarding water management and its saline content. Over 800 farmers were trained and involved in the rehabilitation of rice fields.
• A water management plan was developed for rice fields of partner villages. Over 320 farmers learned water resource management skills.

Challenges

• This project had an ambitious scope of activities ranging from water management to agroprocessing. The technical shortcomings of project staff in those diverse technical areas had to be partly compensated for through short capacity-building activities in specific areas in cooperation with government specialists and with support from technicians.
• The illiteracy rate in partner villages remained high. The training offered by the project was adjusted and simplified to better reach the participants and facilitate the absorption of content shared. Simultaneously, literacy classes were offered in all 24 rural communities.