With Togolese farmers, FAO promotes agriculture that protects forests. For the UN organisation, it is important to produce food while protecting and restoring the forest cover. To encourage farmers on this path, the UN agency signed a financing agreement with five development partners on September 17, 2019 in Lomé, the capital of Togo.
The agreement provides for a financial contribution of almost 135,000 euros, or just over 88 million CFA francs, supported by five local actors, including the Regional Directorate for the Environment, Sustainable Development and Nature Protection of Plateaus (1,657,500 CFA francs) and the Togo-based Cereal Producers Centre (CPC-Togo) (26,752,000 FCFA).
The forest and farmers mechanism
After the agreement was signed, the FAO clarified the framework and destination of the financial support. “The present agreements that are signed between FAO and these various organisations will strengthen producers’ capacities at the local level to prepare them to contribute to landscape and land restoration under the FFF initiative,” said Issifou Aboudou Aboudoumisamilou, FFF coordinator in Togo.
The Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) is an initiative launched in 2012 by the FAO. Now in its second phase in Togo since April 2019, this mechanism is helping forest and agricultural producers’ organisations (smallholders, rural women’s groups, local communities and indigenous peoples’ institutions) to increase their technical and commercial capacities so that they can play their crucial role in combating climate change and improving food security. In return, Togo has committed to restoring 1.4 million hectares of forest by 2030.
Boris Ngounou