“About 68 percent of the people living in Colombia’s rural areas are poor, most of them small farm families,” said Miguel Lopez-Bakovic, World Bank Country Manager for Colombia. “This project will help reduce rural poverty by enabling small producers to compete successfully in the national and global marketplace.”
Under the Second Rural Productive Partnerships Project, small farmers’ producer organizations will gain access to relevant markets by entering into a productive partnership with private sector companies, with the support of financial institutions, government and civil society. At the same time, agribusiness firms will be able to expand food processing activities by securing supplies from small producers.
The project builds upon the success of the ongoing Productive Partnerships Support Project which has allowed the creation of 117 partnership schemes with the commercial private sector, benefiting 10,400 rural families. These include partnerships to improve farm infrastructure, such as irrigation canals, aquaculture facilities, greenhouses, machinery, equipment and special studies. These schemes have generated additional income and employment, stimulated social cohesion in rural areas, spread entrepreneurial culture, and generated local capacity to implement rural partnerships.
The new project aims to finance at least 300 additional partnerships and reach 25,300 small and medium-sized farm families. The project activities will have national coverage but focus on the departments that have potential for development through agriculture.
This US$30 million, fixed-spread loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) is repayable in 17.5 years, and includes a grace period of 5.5 years. -The World Bank
