With a budget of 30.5 million dollars, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) announced this Friday, March 30, the start of the Project for Sustainable and Adequate Development in Rural Areas (Desatar).

The project will last five years and will be implemented in 30 cantons and 67 parishes in the provinces of Guayas, Manabí, Los Ríos and Santa Elena, and plans to benefit 10,000 small producers from 90 organizations.

Subsidies for small banana farmers reach $230,000 in Guayas, Los Ríos and El Oro

Of the total number of producers who will benefit, 4,000 will be women, 2,000 rural youth, 500 members of the Huancavilca community and 3,500 women and men from cities and nationalities. The strategy proposes encouraging an increase in the number of members of participating organizations.

The Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Eduardo Izaguirre explained that the goal of the project is to improve the incomes of small rural producers in poverty, especially women and young people. In addition, promote environmental sustainability and the resilience of production activities to climate change.

The initiative, which will be implemented by MAG, is financed and supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development of the United Nations (IFAD), which will contribute 22.8 million dollars from the announced total amount, and another 4.2 million dollars will be invested by the Government of Ecuador and the remaining 3, 4 million dollars will represent the equivalent value of the user.

FIDA has been working in Ecuador for four decades. It implements initiatives that favor the diversification of the rural economy by promoting rural organizations and betting on investments that generate employment and income for poor rural families.

To date, FIDA has implemented a portfolio of 11 projects in Ecuador, with a total value of $330 million, of which $160 million was financed by IFAD for the benefit of more than 280,000 households.

The ministry reported that more than 276 banana producers have received financial assistance, half of which are from El Oro

Meanwhile, the Desatar project has three components. The first empowers the use of new technologies and best practices for the development of productive initiatives and associativity.

The second component, through the adoption of the introduced novelties, will be in charge of strengthening technical, cooperative, business and service capacities. Third, emphasis will be placed on the administrative scope of project management.