MOSTAR, October 14 (FENA) - Organized by the FBiH Ministry of Agriculture, Water Management and Forestry, the Rural Enterprises and Agricultural Development Project in Cluster 5 (READP) was presented in Mostar on Thursday, on the occasion of a new loan agreement which Bosnia and Herzegovina has concluded with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) with the aim of financing costs under the eighth IFAD project.
Local stakeholders, potential project beneficiaries, for the area of Cluster 5, which includes part of the municipalities in the region of Herzegovina, were presented with information on the project areas, objectives and budget, and funding sources, as well as components/subcomponents and ways of execution.
The project is financed from IFAD loan funds in the total amount of 11,787,000 euros, of which the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina received about 60 percent of the approved loan funds.
The loan repayment is planned for 18 years with a grace period of three years. The interest rate on this loan is 0.0 percent with the cost of servicing the loan of 0.25 percent per year.
The Ministry stated that the main goal of the project is to contribute to economic development by increasing the income of rural poor households with the help of business leaders (business plans), and greater and more active involvement of poor farmers in successful profitable and originally oriented value chains.
"The emphasis is on helping the poor households from rural areas that want to get out of the category by engaging in some profitable production in the value chains of berries, fruits, medicinal and aromatic plants, greenhouse production and all types of products that contribute to household income growth," told FENA the director of the project coordination unit at the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Management and Forestry Halil Omanović.
It is planned for the to project about 8,000 households directly and about 5,000 households indirectly by connecting them with market infrastructure.
(FENA) S. R.