Guinea-Bissau Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development Project

pipeline

Prospective

The proposed Project is an Investment Project Financing (IPF) to be implemented over a five-year period. The project aims to tackle the challenges facing Guinea-Bissau’s agriculture, including low productivity, environmental degradation, and climate vulnerability, which contribute to poverty and food and nutrition insecurity. Rural communities rely heavily on cashew production on the uplands, but low yields and unsustainable practices limit income generation and hamper diversification. This leads to biodiversity loss, deforestation, and erosion, affecting the lowlands, which have high agricultural potential and are mainly used for rice cultivation. Limited access to inputs, technology, and technical assistance further exacerbates these issues.The proposed operation will improve the productivity, sustainability, and resilience of family farms in selected agrifood value chains in Guinea-Bissau. Using a territorial approach as an entry point, the proposed Project would enhance livelihoods by enhancing agricultural productivity through sustainable intensification practices and supporting small community investments for improved natural resource management and food and nutrition security. Farm-level activities would be linked to their landscapes and communities through integrated interventions within delimited territories, specifically micro-watersheds. This approach would align agriculture across uplands and lowlands while protecting natural resources (particularly water, soil, and forests), and it would help identify and prioritize challenges and investment opportunities that support agrobiodiversity and sustainable food systems. The project would also support value addition in key value chains such as rice and cashew, encouraging sustainable practices that lead to market access and higher income opportunities (for instance, improving cashew quality and exploring certification for export). At the same time, the project would promote production diversification (e.g. horticulture, short-cycle livestock), for improved income opportunities, resilience, and nutritional quality of diets. To ensure the sustainability of project investments over the long term, the project would strengthen the enabling environment by ensuring provide continuous technical assistance, supporting the institutional capacity of key government agencies and service providers, and promoting the professionalization of youth in the agricultural sector.The Project will consist of four interlinked components. Component 1 will support community investments for sustainable agricultural intensification. Component 2 will invest in value chain modernization and access to markets. Component 3 will promote institutional strengthening for the enabling environment. Component 4 will oversee project management.

World Bank Group

Project

Water Supply and Storage, Raw Materials, Consumer Products, Government