Pioneering direct farmer support in Guinea

24 March 2020. The National Programme to SupportAgricultural Value Chain Actors (Programme
national d’appui aux acteurs des filières agricoles [PNAAFA]) opened in May 2011. It offered funding, capacity-building, technical support and a partnership platform to farmers through the CNOP-G, to enable them to implement their own development and build up selected value chains.

This innovation was made possible because Guinea has an exceptionally strong and dynamic national farmers’ organization, recognized as something of a model in subSaharan Africa.

Innovation. 
The major innovation of this programme was related to the fact that the Professional agricultural organisations (PAOs) were the main entry point and the direct implementing body of activities. The programme, however, was hampered by their lack of experience.

• Technical innovation such as the use of solar pumping in irrigation schemes had a positive impact in reducing drudgery. It also reduced pollution by offering alternatives to motor pumps. 
• The input supply mechanism, including the distribution of improved seeds, was another innovation that allowed each PAO to set up a system that would help identify the needs in inputs of individual producers. 
• However, the terms and conditions for granting these inputs were apparently not well clarified to producers, reason that led to low reimbursements with an average of 51 per cent only.

Background
National Programme to SupportAgricultural Value Chain Actors(PNAAFA)
Total cost: US$45.7 million IFAD loan: US$13.3 million IFAD grants: US$17.8 million
Cofinancing: OPEC Fund for International Development (US$10.0 million)
Duration: 2009 to December 2019
Directly benefiting: 66,000 households
Follow up: Agri Farm Guinea IFAD

The activities of the project were structured along three components: 

1. Support to farmers’ organizations (74 per cent of the total cost). It aimed at institutionally strengthening the Professional Agricultural Organizations (PAOs, federations and unions) and supporting their economic activities that contributed to the development of the targeted value chains; 
2. Institutional and financial support (11 per cent of the total cost). It aimed at providing institutional support to the main technical services at the regional and national levels involved in the implementation of PNAAFA. It also aimed at supporting the development of specific financial services and consolidating the FSAs; 
3. Programme coordination and knowledge management (15 per cent of the total cost).

Related:

4 March 2020. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) announced support for a new project in Guinea-Bissau to reduce poverty, increase productivity and incomes, improve food and nutrition security and build the resilience of at least 287,000 small-scale farmers in the face of climate change.

To help the country to address these issues, the financing agreement for the Agricultural Diversification, Integrated Markets, Nutrition and Climate Resilience Project (REDE) was signed by correspondence by Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD, and Geraldo João Martins, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau.