Cover_Rebuilding West Africas Food Potential

140 Rebuilding West Africa’s food potential

These programs also support self-management initiatives in rural communities, including developing

local development plans, establishing local governance structures and the promoting income generating

activities for the benefit of vulnerable groups, particularly women and youth.

C. Developing appropriate financing mechanisms

The state’s actions in this area have entailed:

(i) Improving budgetary resources for rural production administrations;

(ii) Establishing the Cocoa and Coffee Development Fund (FODECC) to finance the coffee and cocoa sectors;

(iii) Following instructions by the Head of State, immediately creating an agricultural bank and a SME bank

with public funding;

(iv) Taking into account financial constraints in implementing activities of various projects and programs;

(v) Setting up a new project to support rural microfinance financed by IFAD.

In terms of funding, the renewed interest by government in agriculture is to be noted. Since 2007, there

has been a significant increase in the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture, as shown in the following table:

These additional financial resources allocated to rural public services have made it possible to subsidize

the main sectors. In this context, aid was granted to organizations such as SEMRY, UNVDA, SODECOTON,

SODECAO, MIDENO, SOWEDA, UCCAO and NWCA to support production in their respective territories

and areas. The state also grants subsidies to small producers organized in CIGs to ensure the development

of their activities.

The renewed interest in agriculture can also be confirmed by the return of key donors including: the

World Bank (PACA funding of nearly 30 billion XAF), the European Union, AFD through the Contracts

for Debt Relief and Development Agreement (C2D), where agriculture is chosen as the focal sector of

the second C2D. IFAD, AfDB and many other donors are also contributing significantly.

As funding is considered a major constraint, most projects take this into account and offer financial

support in the form of equipment, inputs, small equipment and / or direct financing micro-projects.

.

Table 6. Evolution of the MINADER budget from 2007 to 2011

Year Amount in XAF million

2007 40 129

2008 45 930

2009 55 251

2010 60 342

2011 72 000

Source: DRFP-MINADER