The Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (AVDP) will be implemented over six years with the overall goal of improving livelihoods, food security and climate resilience of rural farming households. The project’s development objective is to increase incomes for smallholder farmers through the promotion of agriculture as a business. The AVDP will target an estimated 43,000 direct beneficiaries and their families, thereby reaching approximately a total of 260,000 people. The project will be financed by IFAD, the Adaption Fund, the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), the private sector, the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) and beneficiaries.
SL-AVDP has three components:
Component1: Climate Resilient and Smart Agricultural Production. The outcome of this component is that volume and value of production is increased, and production systems are made more climate resilient.
Component2: Agricultural Market Development. The expected outcome of this component is the improved performance and organization of the selected value chains for the increased smallholder production and productivity.
Component3: Project coordination and management. The implementation of AVDP will be anchored within the National Programme Coordination Unit (NPCU) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MAF) at the district level. At the NPCU level, the project will provide for staff (many of whom are expected to be drawn from the merged NPCU and Smallholder Commercialization Programme – Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme (SCP-GASFP)), vehicles, office equipment and supplies, and operational costs.