FAO-Government project to intensify agriculture pays off for female farmers in Niger
Established in 2008, IARBIC is a five-year, EUR 6 million project which aims to intensify agriculture in Niger. According to FAO's most recent hunger statistics, Niger has succeeded in reducing undernourishment threefold in the last two decades.
Micro-finance helps female farmers improve their livelihoods
It now affects one out of every eight persons, as compared to almost one in three in 1990-1992. Between 2008 and 2013 the project has resulted in: 264 input shops created (including 75 that had already benefitted from EU-funding) which brings to 783 the total number of such shops (including those established in previous years and by partners that have followed the IARBIC example); some 375 farmers’ field schools and 750 demonstrations being organized that reached almost 7 500 farmers, half of them women; 100 warehouses for ‘warrantage’, now available to some 100 000 farmers; and the establishment of a EUR 653 000 guarantee fund for eight farmers’ federations representing 164 000 farmers.