Sao Tome: UN agency pencils in $30m for agriculture, fisheries projects to 2022

Sao Tome – “This is a solid platform of cooperation and collaboration between the government, the FAO, all the other partners of the United Nations system, civil society, producers, international development bodies, the private sector, research institutes and other privileged actors in food and agricultural systems,” said Hélder Muteia, the FAO’s regional representative.

Muteia was speaking during the signing, with Sao Tome’s minister of agriculture and rural development, Teodorico Campos, of the FAO’s programming framework for the country for the next five years.

During the period, the FAO is to help the Sao Tome authorities to manage natural resources sustainably, improve production and develop value chains in agriculture, livestock, forestry and fisheries, so helping reduce hunger and malnutrition.

Muteia said that these areas are “inspired” by the government’s own National Programme of Agricultural Investments for Food and Nutritional Security and Poverty Reduction Strategy, as well as the UN’s sustainable development goals and the FAO’s strategic objectives.

For his part, Campos stressed that his country has some 49,000 hectares of very fertile land and fisheries estimated at 29,000 tons, but that it is still dependent on development aid to make the most of them.