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ECOWAS develops mechanism for food production

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Financing facility will provide loans, guarantees, equity investments to small farms

 

As part of it efforts to curb impacts of climate change on agricultural productivity in West Africa, particularly on small producers, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has developed a financial mechanism integrated into the Regional Fund for Agriculture and Food (RFAF) called the, “West African Initiative for Climate-Smart Agriculture (WAICSA).”

 

ECOWAS said in a press release that the WAICSA comprised of two facilities: the Financing Facility, which provides loans, guarantees and equity investments to small farms, smallholder organisations, agribusinesses, directly and through local financial institutions, and the Technical Assistance Facility, which helps financial in  termediaries to design loan products incorporating Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) cross-compliance and guides smallholders in the implementation of CSA practices adapted to the local context.

 

It also explained that the two facilities would finance simultaneously and in a complementary manner investment projects adopting sustainable and profitable agriculture techniques in the agricultural, livestock, fisheries and forestry sectors, aimed essentially at adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.

 

“The selected WAICSA financing mechanism relies on financial intermediaries which will benefit from the lines of credit to finance the operators targeted by the Fund (farmers, cooperatives and agroentrepreneurs),” the statement said.

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