International Development written question – answered at on 26 February 2009.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps he is taking to ensure the availability of funds for African smallholders.
The Department for International Development (DFID) is committed to providing funds for African smallholders and does so in a number of different ways. These include contributions to programmes that improve food security. Examples include:
£133 million over four years (2005-09) to the Productive Safety Nets Programme that makes cash and food payments to seven million of Ethiopia's poorest farmers during the hungry season.
£20 million for the Government of Malawi's programme to increase maize production through seed and fertiliser subsidies for 1.5 million smallholders, which last year increased the harvest by over 800,000 tonnes.
DFID has also helped establish, and contributed £10 million, to the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) that approved its first projects in 2008. AECF was recommended by the Commission for Africa to encourage the private sector to improve provision of financial services to African farmers and rural communities. One example of a project that AECF has co-financed is a $1 million investment in cold storage for 1,400 smallholder poultry farmers in Kenya.
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