Nago Bank Road upgrade launched, project funded under GOB’s Resilient Rural Belize Programme

Contributed by Resilient Rural Belize: The Government of Belize (GOB), with financing totalling BZ$40 million from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and participating beneficiaries has embarked on a six-year Resilient Rural Belize (RRB) programme which aims to minimize the impacts of climatic and economic events on agricultural Micro, Small and Medium (MSME) farms and households. Its development objective is to build overall resilience to climate change for these MSMEs by adopting new or improved climate-resilient practices, increasing and diversifying agricultural production, and facilitating small farmers’ access, including improved road access, to commercial market chains for the off-take of their surplus production.

The RRB program operates a Matching Grant Fund through which it provides technical and financial assistance to agricultural cooperatives such as the Los Pequeños Agricultores y Ganaderos de Nago Bank Co-operative Society Limited. The main objective of the fund is to support the achievement of the RRB project by co-financing investments that would improve, in volume and quality, small farmer agricultural production and safeguard food security in the context of existing and projected climate change effects. Working with cooperatives and other producer organizations, the RRB is providing support for the development of business plans, which identify proposed investments, including technical assistance and capacity building, and which shall be used as the basis for accessing support from the Matching Grant Fund. The program also provides funding to producer organization communities in areas such as the enhancement of agricultural feeder roads so that farmers can get their goods to market more efficiently and effectively. This is the purpose of the enhancement of the Nago Bank Road which we are witnessing today.

A contract for the upgrading of three miles of the Nago Bank Road was signed on Monday 9th May 2022 between the Government of Belize (GOB) and  Teichroeb & Sons Limited. Signing on behalf of the Government of Belize was the Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Economic Development Dr. Osmond Martinez and signing on behalf of Teichroeb & Sons was Mr. Peter Teichroeb, the Chief Executive Officer of Teichroeb & Sons Limited. The contract is worth Bze$1,734,102.34.

The event today is the actual launch of the Nago Bank Road project. The Nago Bank area along with Maskall and Bomba are the “vegetable basket” for the Belize District and elsewhere; therefore, it is very important for food security that these areas have proper road access to bring their products to the market all year round. The RRB project has also signed a matching grant agreement with the Los Pequeños Agricultores y Ganaderos de Nago Bank Co-operative Society Limited to assist the Cooperative with the construction of a water facility, a storage/packing shed and with climate friendly irrigation implements as well as capacity building efforts for the Cooperative itself so that they can achieve organizational and financial sustainability. The RRB project intends to duplicate these efforts among 30 farming communities across Belize.

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