French international technical cooperation agency, Expertise France, launched a call for projects worth €3.5 million to support agricultural resilience in West Africa, Chad and Mauritania.

According to the agency, Africa needs to find a new agricultural approach to ensure food security for its populations. The continent has 5 of the 10 poorest countries in the world and its population is forecasted to double by 2030, reaching 500 million people.

The objective of this call for projects is to support initiatives to transform and reorient agricultural systems as to make them sustainable while achieving equity between production and farm incomes. In addition, these systems will have to be adapted and be resilient to the climate while having a reduced carbon footprint.

The innovative projects that will be selected will be eligible for financial support ranging from €150,000 to €230,000. Interested applicants have until October 17, 2019 to submit their initiatives.

Gwladys Johnson Akinocho