FAO signs financing agreements with 7 local partners on the sideline of its 40th anniversary in Togo

Agriculture

Monday, 29 June 2020 09:19

FAO signs financing agreements with 7 local partners on the sideline of its 40th anniversary in Togo

(Togo First) - On June 25, 2020, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) inked in Lomé seven (7) agreements to finance its local partners. This falls in the framework of the body’s forest and farmer facility.

In all, more than XOF130 million was disbursed in the process, and between 15%-20% of this amount will be spent on anti-coronavirus actions. The remainder will be directed towards initiatives aimed at making forests more resilient to climate change and improving the income of local communities.

“Concretely, the goal is to contribute to the processing of products locally and create market systems that foster product sales, both at the local and international levels,” said Issifou Aboussissamilou, the national facilitator of the forest and farmer facility. Moreover, the financing should “help restore forest landscapes, by expanding the forest seeds sector to grow better seedlings and support the government in implementing the AFR100 project which aims at restoring 1.4 million hectares of forest lands.”

The funds’ beneficiaries include the Togolese coordination of farmers and agricultural producers associations (CTOP), the botany and ecology lab of the University of Lomé, and Chocotogo.

The agreements, it should be noted, were signed as the FAO celebrates its 40th anniversary in Togo. Over the past four decades, the institution has carried out 336 projects, worth about XOF70 billion, in the country.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

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