On Tuesday, 09 February, Mauritania signed two financing agreements worth €9 million with the Agence Française de Développement (AFD). These funds will help the country improve food security and enhance the role of women in agriculture.
On Tuesday, 9 February 2021, Mauritania and AFD signed two financing agreements worth €09 million for food security and agriculture. 500,000 euros of this amount will be dedicated, according to a statement, to the diversification of the gender in the agricultural field. The remainder is intended to improve food security and enhance the role of women in agriculture in the Gorgol and Guidimakha regions.
On the occasion of the signing, the Mauritanian Minister of Economy and Productive Sectors, Ousmane Mamoudou Kane, declared that these agreements provide for the supervision and organization of production cooperatives, support for the marketing and development of the structures of the National Society for Rural Development (SONADER). The French ambassador to Mauritania, Robert Moulié, explained that this funding is intended to enhance the rural capacities of women in their environment and to strengthen support for the project for the consolidation of food security.
2500 farmers in the municipalities of Gouraye, Ghabou, Nere Walo, Djowel, Tokomadi, and Tifounde Cive are concerned by this funding, which is the second phase of an ASARIGG agricultural project initiated in 2018. In addition, the financing will make it possible to develop and equip 11 irrigated areas for rice production and 10 market gardening areas managed by women to improve their agricultural production. It is also planned to establish a rapid action component to restore 350 ha of degraded land and promote agroecological practices in six territories for the benefit of the 25000 inhabitants of the area.
