Responding to COVID-19: Modern and Resilient Agri-food Value Chains

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The proposed project is an Investment Project Financing (IPF) for US$150 million of IBRD, US$17.7 million of counterpart financing from project beneficiaries, and an expected co-financing of US$11.3 million of IFAD credit. The total project cost is estimated to be US$179 million and be implemented over a period of five years. The PDO is to promote an agro-industrialization strategy that reduces food losses, increases the adoption of climate-resilient technologies, and supports the COVID 19 emergency response for beneficiaries in select value chains. Investment in post-harvest activities in key value-chains with agro-industrial potential will contribute to an efficient and resilient agri-food industry, playing a critical role in helping the government deliver on its job creation, inclusion and sustainable growth objectives, while strengthening the economic foundation for recovering from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Increasing efficiency will reduce food losses and improve quality, improving returns to farmers and other food system actors and enhancing delivery of nutrition outcomes. Increasing beneficiary resilience will contribute to reducing adverse impacts on incomes, nutrition, employment, and other aspects of the rural economy in the face of future shocks and crises due to climate change, pandemics, and other unforeseen events. The project will contribute to improved efficiency and resilience through supporting adoption of on-farm technologies to a) extend the shelf life of food production, which increases market access and the bargaining power of producers and small agro-industrial enterprises, also fostering their growth potential; and b) diversify year-round the population's diet at affordable prices, with favorable impacts on nutrition. Overall, the proposed activities will contribute to improving the efficiency of key value-chains while investing in on-farm technologies to help beneficiaries in key VCs increase resilience. The project has 4 components. Under component 1, it will support the post-COVID-19 economic recovery and the productive transformation of the agro-industrial sector, investing in (i) technical assistance to the National Strategy on Financial Inclusion 2019-2023 and an emergency relief fund; (ii) skills development for greater employability and export opportunities and (iii) consumer education for better consumption patterns. Through Component 2, eligible beneficiary MSMEs will receive financial support on the basis of approved (profitable, inclusive, sustainable and climate-informed) business plans to improve the quality of their productive processes through investments in production and post-harvest practices, including activities such as storage, agro-logistics, aggregation, and transformation of harvested products along the selected VCs. All business plans will be accompanied by technical assistance, with a focus on the most vulnerable populations, including indigenous populations, youth and women and will specifically prioritize the adoption of climate resilient / climate smart technologies. The financing mechanism for business plans will be a blend of grants and MSMEs’ own contributions (in-kind or cash), and the option to MSMEs for accessing loans from national financial institutions to cover part of their contribution. Component 3 will strengthen strategic public sector institutions of the agrifood system and finance investments in Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) and Traceability Systems for Food Safety. Component 4 will focus on monitoring, evaluation and project management.

FY17 - Agriculture, Fishing and Forestry,FY17 - Industry, Trade and Services

World Bank

Project

Power Generation (CCGT), Warehouse, Raw Materials, Government, Education, Manufacturing (Industrial)