The United Arab Emirates will give $4 million to help rural women in Liberia develop sustainable poultry and vegetable production using solar energy, in partnership with The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO said on Friday in a statement.
The project aims to support 1,500 rural women in three counties to grow valuable vegetables and produce poultry products, such as meat and eggs, as well as to engage in fish farming.
Another goal is to increase crop yields in scalable ways, the statement said. Improved foundation seed will be used in one major rice-growing area, where an international and national rice expert will be sent to build and strengthen the capacity of farmers and district agriculture officers working for Liberia's Ministry of Agriculture.
"At FAO we are very pleased to pilot this Public Private Partnership for women in Liberia with the hope for it to become a successful modality in involving the private sector in development," said Roberto Ridolfi, Assistant Director-General, Programme Support and Technical Cooperation Department.
The funds will also go towards obtaining chicks, poultry vaccines, seeds, fertilizer, power tillers, and vehicles for marketing. And rural women will be helped to form producer groups, cooperatives or marketing associations and to learn basic business and entrepreneurial skills, said the statement.
The project will also offer study tours including trips to successful ventures in Benin and the UAE to help scale up and replicate its benefits in surrounding areas, according to the statement.
The project will be managed by FAO and Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, which plans to provide solar energy solutions to support irrigation, cold storage, mills and other key farming operations.
The contribution, agreed earlier this week, comes from the UAE's foreign and international cooperation ministry.
