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| Cotton collecting center in Brazil where separation from the seeds take place before being compressed then stored. [Photo Credit: FAQ/Alberto Conti ] |
Washington: United Nations and Brazil on Wednesday signed a $20 million
agreement that will allow to transfer the
expertise of the South American country to support cotton farmers in developing
economies.
“This agreement represents an excellent opportunity to
demonstrate the effectiveness of South-South cooperation between developing
world partners as a vehicle for sustainable economic growth,” said the
Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), José Graziano
da Silva, at the signing ceremony at the agency’s headquarters in Rome.
Cotton is fundamental to the economies of many developing
nations, particularly in West and Central Africa, where around 10 million small
farmers depend on the sector for their income, according to FAO. As a result,
the sector occupies a strategic position in the development and
poverty-reduction strategies of a number of governments in Africa, Asia and
Latin America.
The four year project will target participating countries
with technical assistance and training in best practice in cotton cultivation
and marketing. Experiences, technologies and techniques acquired through the
initiative will be captured and disseminated to promote further knowledge- and
skills transfer, FAO said in a new release.
As one of the major producers of cotton in the world, Brazil
also has considerable experience in devising new technologies for the cotton
production chain, including through cooperative rural development efforts
undertaken with other cotton producers such as Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and
Mali. The project seeks to capitalize on these experiences to strengthen the
agricultural sectors in developing countries and foster cooperation on rural
development.
Initially, the project will focus on Haiti and countries in
the MERCOSUR zone (South America’s ‘Southern Common Market’), with the
possibility of extending it to other developing countries in Latin America and
Africa.
The Brazilian Cotton Institute will provide $10 million in
financial support, while the Brazilian Cooperation Agency will supply an
additional $10 million.
FAO’s Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean
will contribute $200,000 worth of non-financial support, including the
provision of expertise and technical information, as well as mobilizing its
international networks in support of the project.