The Technical Cooperation Agreement to facilitate the project, titled Improving Livestock Sector Productivity and Climate Resilience in Belize, was signed on Tuesday in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The signing took place during the twentieth annual Inter-American Forum on Micro-enterprise.
Signing on behalf of Belize was the Vice-Chairman of the Belize Livestock Producers Association, BLPA, Ramon Galvez, while Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the IDB, signed on behalf of the hemispheric organization.
According to a media release from the IDB, what the project will do for Belize and in particular cattle farmers is “introduce intensive climate smart production technologies, and provide tailored credit products to allow accessibility to these technologies, with the overall objective of increasing the productivity of small and medium sized cattle farmers in Belize, and reducing their vulnerability to climate change.”
Direct beneficiaries of the project, according to the IDB, include “the owners and employees of 250 small and medium-sized cattle farms, 12 Livestock Extension Technicians, 12 tertiary-level Agriculture teachers through training and capacity-building, directly, and a further 600 indirect beneficiary family members.”
A breakdown of the funding for the project shows that US$550,500 will be sourced from the IDB’s Multilateral Investment Fund, while counterpart funding of US$325,200 will be provided by the Belize Livestock Producers Association.
The project is being executed in Belize by the BLPA in partnership with the Agronomic Center for Tropical Research and Education, CATIE and the La Inmaculada Credit Union, LICU.
