With broad experience and global expertise, IFDC is uniquely positioned for immediate response in agricultural and humanitarian emergency or crisis situations. In recent years, the organization’s assets have been leveraged to create rapid start-up programs to assist such nations as Bangladesh and Kyrgyzstan, and economic regions such as West Africa. Unaddressed, these situations could pose significant hazards to these areas’ agricultural value chains, as well as threaten short- and long-term food security.
Examples of IFDC’s Crisis Intervention Efforts:
Emergency Agro-Input Program
Crisis: 2010 regime change in Kyrgyzstan threatened access to agro-inputs by farmers in the nation’s mountainous regions.
Intervention: With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), IFDC is provided seeds and fertilizers worth $150,000 to address the immediate needs of Kyrgyz farmers. The assistance consisted of 100 metric tons of spring wheat elite seed, 100 metric tons of spring barley elite seed, 40 metric tons of corn seed and 100 metric tons of compound fertilizers. The seed and fertilizers were being delivered to areas of the Kyrgyz Republic with the most immediate needs, and were distributed free of charge.
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Emergency Plan for the Cotton Inputs Market in West Africa, 2003-2008
Crisis: Rapidly declining cotton prices in West Africa (due to oversupply of world cotton, encouraged by large developed country subsidies) threatened the economic vitality of many nations in the region.
Intervention: This emergency plan within IFDC’s Marketing Inputs Regionally project provided rapid support for stakeholders of the cotton sector through innovative solutions that increased profits along the agricultural value chain. Training workshops were held and information was disseminated to discuss strengths and weaknesses in national and regional agro-inputs procurement. The most successful interventions benefited GSCVM, a farmers’ association in Mali, and CMDT, a national cotton company. These organizations were taught proactive procurement at the international market level, resulting in significant savings in their purchases while ensuring agro-input quality and availability.
With reliable distribution in place, IFDC utilized catalytic agronomic research to develop the newest and most appropriate fertilizer formulae for plant and soil requirements of various areas in the region. The effort was executed in partnership with producers, fertilizer suppliers and researchers, and facilitated a better understanding of new farming practices for cotton crop nutrient supply and protection. The research produced a better understanding of factors that provided substantially increased cotton yields, and was disseminated to all stakeholders and integrated into components of the MIR project.
The program included aggressive policy reform advocacy on a multinational scale and facilitated governmental legislation and intergovernmental agreements that supported free trade among partnering nations.
IFDC also initiated a platform that allowed the revival of the once-effective West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF) workshops for cotton researchers and other stakeholders, and organized a conference of West and Central African cotton producers in 2005. The meeting provided informational exchange among 180 participants from 17 countries. This conference, along with subsequent IFDC efforts, contributed to the creation of the USAID-funded West Africa Cotton Improvement Project (WACIP) that targeted Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali from 2007-2010.
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Food Security and Crisis Mitigation Program /The Rice Emergency Initiative, 2009-2010
Crisis: Potential rice shortages in Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal threatened food security in the region.
Intervention: The Rice Emergency Initiative, a two-year program funded by the USAID West Africa Mission, is a component of the Food Security and Crisis Mitigation Program. Implemented by IFDC and its partners, the program targets 10,000 rice farmers in each of four countries – Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal. IFDC is boosting total domestic rice production among the participants by 30,000 tons of paddy rice, with a current market value of about US $21 million. IFDC is also improving access for these 40,000 farmers to certified rice seed and quality fertilizer while expanding their knowledge of current rice production technologies and best practices.
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Improved Livelihood for Sidr-Affected Rice Farmers (ILSAFARM), 2008-2010
Crisis: In 2007, Cyclone Sidr caused over 5,000 deaths and destroyed over one million hectares of crops in Bangladesh, threatening to dramatically reduce production during upcoming rice seasons.
Intervention: ILSAFARM is helping restore and improve rice production for 280,000 families in the Sidr-affected areas of Bangladesh. At the center of efforts to maximize production are ongoing trainings in urea deep placement (UDP), a proven technology to increase crop yields while reducing the amount of fertilizer previously required.
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