Morocco and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) signed, on Monday in Rome, a loan and grant agreement totaling 46,5 million dollars to finance the Atlas Mountains Rural Development Project (PDRMA).
The funding agreement, made up of a 45,1 mln dollar-loan and a 1,4 mln dollar-grant, was signed by Morocco’s ambassador to Italy Hassan Abouyoub and IFAD vice president Michel Mordasini.
The PDRMA, co-funded by the Moroccan government by up to 13.6 million dollars and the beneficiaries themselves (1,2 mln dollars) will cover 18 rural communes in three provinces as Ouarzazate, Tinghir and Beni Mellal and benefit around 26,700 inhabitants in the mountainous zones of the three provinces.
The project comes under the strategy of developing rural and mountainous zones of the Moroccan Green Plan (PMV) and is part of IFAD program’s strategic goals in Morocco.
It aims to ameliorate the living conditions of rural populations in mountains. It also seeks to increase their income through upgrading value chains, improving access to markets, improving sustainable management of natural resources and diversifying income sources.
This is the 14th IFAD-funded project in Morocco for an amount of 61.3 mln dollars.
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