Rural Livelihoods Development Project Project Description
	The project objectives will be achieved through the implementation of the following components: 

1)	Agricultural Production and Farmer Organisation: 

	The component aims at increasing the yields, outputs and product quality and value of existing farm enterprises. This will be achieved through activities in:

	a)Improvement of Agricultural Productivity and Efficiency, including provision of advice, training and mentoring of farmer groups, PAs and Cooperatives; the promotion of whole farm, and crop and livestock enterprise planning and management; the demonstration of improved technologies and practices; facilitating advisory, logistical and, if necessary, limited financial assistance to crop and livestock input suppliers and service providers; agricultural and natural products activities to be demand and market-driven; technical information and advice sourced from extension agencies, lead farmers, academic and research institutions and NGOs, delivered by contracted service providers using participatory on-farm trials and demonstrations under the farmer field school type of approach; and

	The keynote of agricultural and natural products activities will be to assist the beneficiary farmers to increasingly improve their productivity, the marketability of their produce and hence their food security and incomes, thus enabling poor households to gradually move into the market economy. 

	b) Support to Farmer Cooperatives and Associations Support through Community-level consultation by a contracted NGO, with inputs from the PCU/APCU and Municipality Officers; arrangement of and guidance to formation and/or strengthening of common interest, self-help groups, PAs and Cooperatives, in conjunction with private sector value chain partners; international TA to design the operating modality of new Cooperatives; training of group, PA and Cooperative staff and office bearers and Municipal officers; mentoring to link PAs and Cooperatives with financial institutions, business development and legal advisory services for registration and business planning; and a financial facility to assist with initial investments in equipment for office, management, and some value chain operations - and as an operating cost subvention, on a declining basis for the first 3 years. 

	
2)	Rural Enterprise Development: 

	a) Agribusiness and Rural SME Support - initial review study on value chain and 	rural SME characteristics and opportunities; provision of financial and technical/professional support by an agency providing business development services for capacity building of existing and new SMEs; training, mentoring and advisory inputs for enterprise planning, feasibility assessment and submissions for financing will be met in full by the Project 	for enterprise proposals that pass a first test of screening for potential; subsequent operational business management, logistical or legal assistance will be available for approved enterprises from the PFI credit operations. 

b) Market-linking-Infrastructure: The objective of this sub-component is to enhance commercial opportunities through the mitigation of infrastructure limitations that constrain investments by farmers and entrepreneurs in rural market enterprises. The project would provide support for the reconstruction of market-linking infrastructure as part of an integrated approach to the revival of the rural economy and enhancing market-linkages. These would include public/community infrastructure such as feeder roads, water supply improvements and electricity connections; rural markets, village level cold storage facilities and drying sheds. The approach developed by LRFDP for the implementation of this subcomponent proved to be participative, operational and efficient. 

Investments in market-linking physical infrastructure will be demand driven, based on requests for assistance for micro-projects selected in a participatory manner by the communities, PAs and p