The World Bank Board of Executive Directors has recently approved an International Development Association (IDA) credit of US$39 million for the second phase of the on-going Integrated Development Program for Irrigated Agriculture in Mauritania.
The objective of the programs to increase the value-added of irrigated agriculture and related incomes and employment in the Senegal River valley through the judicious use of the country’s most precious natural assets: water and arable land.
“The project addresses the enduring fact that Mauritania’s poor disproportionately live in rural areas. Through increased incomes and employment and improvement of natural resource management in irrigated areas, the program will contribute to two Millennium Development Goals of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, and ensuring environmental sustainability”, said Ismael Ouedraogo, the World Bank Task Team Leader for the project.
The Integrated Development Program for Irrigated Agriculture in Mauritania is designed as a three-phase, 15-year Adaptable Program Lending. It targets the development of irrigation schemes totaling 12,500 ha, including 10,000 ha in existing schemes and 2,500 ha of new schemes for vegetables, fruit-trees, forage, and agro-forestry production.
