The Ivorian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Adjoumani Kouassi Kobenan, launched Friday in Abidjan the Support Project for Agroecological Transition in West Africa (PATAE) for Côte d'Ivoire, targeting three regions of country for about 580 million FCFA.

This Agroecological Transition Support Project in West Africa, called PATAE, comes "to reinforce the axes linked to the ecological approach of PNIA 2 (National Agricultural Investment Program II)", indicated Mr. Adjoumai to the opening of a workshop.

The PATAE, he said, aims to "promote the emergence, adoption and dissemination of ecologically intensive agricultural practices in family farms" and should contribute to strengthening the management framework for farms.

For the Ivorian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, "it is a signal of optimization of the production space, the technical route and especially the profitability of the farms in order to improve the income and preserve the environment”.

The implementation of this project in Côte d'Ivoire should "impact the actors of the cocoa sector, the market gardening sector and fish farming, in particular for the adoption of innovations in their daily practice".

More than 2,500 producers should be affected by the various projects in the regions of Bélier, Grands Ponts and Marahoué for an amount of "more than €880,000, or approximately FCfa 580,000,000 for the development of innovations in the transition agroecology in these regions”.

ECOWAS is leading this project with a total cost of 8,960,000 euros (5.877 billion CFA francs), financed by the French Development Agency (AFD) and implemented in five West African countries, notably Burkina Faso , Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Senegal and Togo.

Caroline Piquet, in charge of agriculture, climate and environment at the AFD Office in Abidjan, pointed out that the agroecological transition aims for innovative natural solutions in order to reduce chemical solutions, which are harmful to the environment. .

She also announced that France is the guest country for the 2019 edition of the International Fair for Agriculture and Animal Resources in Abidjan (SARA). A platform for exchanging experiences and presenting agricultural innovations.

Activities at the regional level started in 2018 with the establishment of the Project Coordination Unit (PCU). In 2019, the State of Côte d'Ivoire was called upon to co-steer and implement PATAE activities.

The overall objective of the four-year project is to improve the performance of family farms for food security, increased income and better resilience to climate change while promoting conservation and restoration of cultivated and natural ecosystems.

In Côte d'Ivoire, initiatives in the three regions are developed through the National Association of Professional Agricultural Organizations of Côte d'Ivoire (ANOPACI), French Farmers and International Development (AFDI) and the European Institute for Cooperation and development (IECD).