Rabobank, FAO Renew Partnership To Help African Farmers

Josephine Mbinya, a farmer, poses for a photograph on her maize plantation at her farm in Joska, Kenya, on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016.. Photographer: Riccardo Gangale/Bloomberg

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Dutch multinational banking and financial services company, Rabobank have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to renew their corporation to boost productivity for small farmers in Africa.

In Tanzania, the partners helped rice and cassava producer groups generate eightfold increase in productivity by improving water, labour, storage and credit practices.

Also, in Ethiopia, the FAO and Rabobank worked with local microfinance lenders to create jobs for the youth, while another project was focused on helping local cooperatives by promoting conservation agriculture in Kenya.

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The partnership, which began in 2013, has helped small-scale farmers and cooperatives in developing countries become economically independent.

“Cooperatives and other associations are the only way for providing family farmers with technical assistance, capacity building, financial resources and access to modern technologies,” he said. “They are also important to promote closer cooperation between farmers and research institutions, to help smaller farmers gain a voice in policy-making and to provide extension and advisory services to their members,” FAO director-general José Graziano da Silva, said.

Graziano da Silva said that investments in infrastructure such as roads and storage capacity would help to connect producers, agro-industrial processors and other segments of the value chains.

He also called for an “urbanization of rural areas” to better provide education, health, electricity, and internet access.