Agricultural Competitiveness and Export Diversification Project

The objective of the Agricultural Competitiveness and Export Diversification Project for Benin is to increase productivity and market access for selected agri-food value chains in Benin. The Project has five components. 1. Strengthening the enabling environment and infrastructure for agri-food value chains development component will support the Government’s ability to provide an enabling environment for competitiveness enhancement. 1.1. Enhancement of relevant public institutions and policy framework for export promotion subcomponent support the government in offering essential public services, building administrative capacity, and in making informed policy decisions that enhance competitiveness, climate resilience and export diversification in the agribusiness sector. 1.2. Development of critical infrastructure and market information systems subcomponent will finance climate-resilient public infrastructure, namely the construction of an energy efficient cold storage freight terminal and related trade infrastructure at the new airport that will be built at Glo-djigbe, and other public infrastructure to be identified through the Competitive Reinforcement Engagements (CREs) process. 2. Increasing productivity, connectivity, value addition, and resilience component support actions to increase the productivity and competitiveness of the agri-food products, starting with pineapple and cashew nuts and proceeding with other priority value chains identified. 2.1. Enhancing the availability and access to quality inputs subcomponent will: (a) Enhance the availability of quality planting materials for pineapple; (b) Enhance the availability of quality planting materials for cashew; (c) Enhance access to stress-tolerant, high-yielding planting materials for targeted value chains; (d) Rehabilitate existing ageing cashew plantations; (e) Provide technical support to National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRAB). 2.2. Improving farmers’ access to knowledge for...