Zimbabwe - Emergency Food Production Project

The proposed operation is a grant of nineteen million Units of Account (UA 19 million), to finance the Zimbabwe Emergency Food Production Project under the African Emergency Food Production Facility (AEFPF). The project will be implemented at community and national levels to support farmers and governments to raise food production to mitigate the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on food prices in the short term and build food security resilience over the medium to long term. The main objective is to increase cereal and oil seed production, fertilizer distribution and policy support to mitigate the food crisis and build the resilience of farmers. The Zimbabwe AEPFP Project will focus on four key agricultural commodities namely wheat, maize, and oilseeds including soybeans and sunflower, in line with the commodities impacted by the Russia - Ukraine conflict. It will also support access to fertilizers for communal (<3ha), small-scale (3 – 10ha) and commercial (>10ha) farmers. The project is expected to increase domestic food production (2 to 4 metric tons/ha) of maize and wheat and deploy high-yielding varieties of oil seeds (soybean and sunflower) on additional 40,000 ha targeting total aggregate production of 400,000MT. It will be implemented from 1 August 2022 to 31 July 2024. The project primely contributes towards climate adaptation result. As such 50% of the total approval is attributed as climate finance, out of which 12 million USD is adaptation finance.