Farmer's Pride International Investiments
A sustainable & Holistic Approach to Food Systems Transformation
An Agriculture Subsidiary of the Hunter's Global Network PTY LTD
RURAL DEVELOPMENT:
Farmers Pride International works to complement African Governments' efforts in reducing the numbers of young people leaving their rural homes for bigger cities or migrating to other countries, for this to be achieved it will work on promoting Agriculture for rural development, the participation of young people and women in Agriculture value chains to reduce this challenge.
Rural development is the process of improving the quality of life and economic well-being of people living in rural areas, often relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas. Rural development has traditionally centred on the exploitation of land-intensive natural resources such as agriculture and forestry. Learn More:
Rural development has traditionally centred on the exploitation of land-intensive natural resources such as agriculture and forestry. However, changes in global production networks and increased urbanization have changed the character of rural areas. Increasingly, tourism, niche manufacturers, and recreation have replaced resource extraction and agriculture as dominant economic drivers. The need for rural communities to approach development from a wider perspective has created more focus on a broad range of development goals rather than merely creating an incentive for agricultural or resource-based businesses. Education, entrepreneurship, physical infrastructure, and social infrastructure all play an important role in developing rural regions. Rural development is also characterized by its emphasis on locally produced economic development strategies. In contrast to urban regions, which have many similarities, rural areas are highly distinctive from one another. For this reason, there is a large variety of rural development approaches used globally.
Fields of Activity
Through its technical and financial assistance, Farmers Pride International will assist in national efforts to identify appropriate rural development solutions compatible with the specific circumstances of each period and place. Special emphasis will be placed on four complementary fields of activity:
a) Rural production projects for low-income farmers. Their purpose is to help increase the production and raise the income of small farmers by allocating resources for a single activity that deals with a specific constraint preventing or hindering development.
b) Integrated agricultural development projects. These projects are aimed at removing more than one production and/or economic infrastructure constraint. Their design envisages supporting more than one sectoral component and includes low-income farmers with the potential for expanded production among direct beneficiaries.
c) Integrated rural development projects. Projects of this type address production, economic infrastructure, and social services constraints on a coordinated basis. Their design entails specifications of various direct objectives and includes financing for two or more sectoral components. By their nature, these projects include as beneficiaries the rural population in marginal areas and endeavour to develop their productive potential and find the best way of incorporating them into the socioeconomic activities of the country.
d) Social infrastructure projects. These are projects that endeavour to improve the social and organizational conditions of low-income rural communities, such as health, sanitation, rural education, community organization, training, etc.
Efforts will be made to coordinate rural and urban development operations to promote the improvement and equipping of rural population centres with productive and social infrastructure for the support of rural activities so that these centres may perform important functions for the location of non-agricultural activities, marketing and processing of rural products, and miscellaneous support services for the production process and for the people living in their areas of influence.
The general objective in this project is the sustained improvement of the quality of life of the low-income rural population while at the same time seeking to assure effective and efficient youth participation in agriculture value chain contributing to rural economy for national development process.
For that purpose, support will be given to the development of "agriculture value chain" economy builders and other low-income sectors in rural areas through various combinations of efforts geared to the specific circumstances of each local community.
In this context, the more specific objectives are:
To promote the rural economy by improving production and the employment situation and incomes of the rural population through:
a) an increase in the economic profitability of farmer units through increases in agricultural productivity (supported, inter alia, by technical assistance, specialized research and small-farmer credit) and improvements in the prices of inputs and outputs that will improve the terms of trade of the "farmer" units vis-a-vis the national economic system;
b) the development of agricultural rural activities, such as agro-industries, support services, etc., which because of their scale may best be assisted through associative structures which will make higher levels of productivity and competitiveness possible;
c) the improvement of working, training and income conditions of rural workers; and
d) the rational occupation of new land on the agricultural frontier, taking into account the nature of the ecological systems, the possibility of economic returns, and physical and economic integration with the national market.
To promote the generation of savings and facilitate a higher level of investment in the rural area.
To strengthen the effectiveness of national and local institutions responsible for the formulation and implementation of rural development policies and projects, and to support effective participation of the population in the planning and implementation of local activities.
To help expand the access of the rural population to basic services, including education, health care, etc.
To strengthen rural development planning as well as the adoption of measures to promote better and more equitable integration of the rural sectors with the rest of the national economy
Mobilize the efforts of rural populations, which entails encouraging their participation in decision-making, organizational activities, training and rural education, social communications, including, where appropriate, the development of associative-type economic organizations that can open the way to socially and economically feasible solutions.