New Delhi, 29 August – Officials of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) are in New Delhi this week to discuss how to best support India’s efforts to alleviate rural poverty, achieve national development objectives and contribute to the 2030 Agenda for development.For nearly four decades, IFAD-funded projects have targeted the poorest and most vulnerable groups in India’s rural communities, delivering important results. For example, the Tejaswini Rural Women Empowerment Programme is combatting malnutrition in six districts in Madhya Pradesh, by working with poor rural women to improve their understanding of nutrition, as well as increasing the availability of healthy foods. Activities include training households to grow a variety of vegetables in garden plots and to better understand the micronutrient value of locally grown food. In addition, the programme works with smallholder farmers to produce and eat minor millets, a food that is nutrition-dense and also resilient to climate change effects.
In Maharashtra the programme is helping empower women by creating a federation of women’s self-help groups, which provide poor rural women with access to the credit and training needed to start income-generating activities. Currently, IFAD has nine ongoing projects and programmes that address a wide-range of development challenges.
A specialized United Nations agency and international financial institution, IFAD has financed 28 rural development programmes and projects in India since 1979. This amounts to a total IFAD investment of US $1 billion or $2.75 billion when complementary funds from the Indian government and others are included, directly benefiting more than 4.5 million rural households.
While in India, the delegation will meet with government officials including: Shobhan Pattanayak, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare; Amarjeet Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development; Naveen Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region; and Dinesh Sharma, Special Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.
(IFAD invests in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience.) – Press release
