Ettore Prandini, president of Coldiretti, Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni, and Federico Vecchioni, CEO of BF SpA, in the presence of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, have signed a cooperation agreement to start assessing the potential of projects abroad, particularly in Africa
Projects are related to the development of local economies using innovative, sustainable and eco-friendly farming techniques.
Under the agreement, Eni, BF S.p.A. and Coldiretti are evaluating, as a priority, the possibility of an initial collaborative project in Ghana. The ‘Ghana Project’ is a pilot project developed by Eni in partnership with the local government, intended to have a lasting impact on development in particularly poor areas of the country.
The project involves setting up a training centre for agricultural development and businesses where their alumni can work, thus also creating an agricultural business community. Students will receive a daily allowance for the duration of their training, provided that they attend lessons. Specific indicators from the Ghana Project have been identified, which will be repeated on a larger scale in other regions of the country and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.
“The target is to export a development model that focuses on the enhancement of local communities, exploiting the potential of family business and supporting small producers in the South of the world, who are threatened by distortion in the systems of production and distribution of food, that favours the hoarding of lands and causes the migration from the countryside to the richest countries where they often expect suffering and marginalisation,” commented Coldiretti’s president.
“Creating modern, integrated agricultural supply chains and transferring expertise on sustainable, innovative farming to younger generations are key goals for BF SpA’s Africa Project, which aims to help reduce food and climate emergencies, and tackle endemic unemployment and lack of prospects that Africa continues to struggle with,” said BF SpA CEO.
“We have formed an innovative partnership. It’s a model of cooperation that uses expertise and technology to meet two pressing needs of our time: the need to make a sustainable contribution to the social and economic development of local communities in developing countries and, at the same time, the need to contribute to a model of energy production that is more and more sustainable and geared towards decarbonisation,” Eni CEO concluded.