The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded a $23.3m five-year project to the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA-Clusa).
The Food for Progress (FFPr) Peruvian People, Nature, and Spices Partnership (PENS) project will seek to boost yields and profits for 12,000 spice farmers in Peru.
The funds are being awarded under the Food for Progress Program, through which USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service partners with non-governmental organisations and foreign governments to support countries strengthen their agricultural systems and boost their trade capacity. USDA is investing $178m in seven international development projects on four continents.
“Food for Progress is a cornerstone of USDA’s international capacity-building efforts,” said agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack. “This year, as we emerge from a global pandemic and face the challenges of rising hunger and poverty, changing climate and the worldwide fallout of Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine, this work is more important than ever.
“By partnering with private-sector organisations, local governments, and local producers and businesses, we are helping to build more equitable and resilient food systems, sustainably boost production capacity to combat food insecurity, and increase farmers’ incomes while enhancing their ability to mitigate and adapt to climate change.“
NCBA-Clusa says the project will build on its prior work in the country, including its current USAID-funded Cooperative Development Program (CDP) and Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program, as well as other USDA FFPr and USAID programmes supporting climate-smart agriculture and global trade in ginger, turmeric, vanilla, coffee, cocoa, black pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and other spices.
In addition to this year’s seven new Food for Progress projects, the USDA is funding 41 projects in 38 countries.
