Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development : Eradicating hunger, creating opportunities

03.01.2016 |

Coto­nou - Fed­eral Min­is­ter Gerd Müller to­day an­nounced that Benin will re­ceive 20 mil­lion eu­ros to sup­port in­no­va­tion in agri­cul­ture. 'You need more than just wa­ter and fer­til­izer for agri­cul­ture. You also need knowl­edge and in­no­va­tion!' Min­is­ter Müller stated at to­day's in­au­gu­ra­tion of the green in­no­va­tion cen­tre in Coto­nou.

Benin and Togo are two of the poor­est coun­tries in the world. That is why ad­vanc­ing food se­cu­rity and pro­vid­ing job prospects in these two part­ner coun­tries of Ger­man de­vel­op­ment co­op­er­a­tion are high on the agenda for the min­is­ter's visit. The green in­no­va­tion cen­tre in Coto­nou is one of the 13 cen­tres world­wide which have been es­tab­lished un­der Ger­man de­vel­op­ment co­op­er­a­tion. The cen­tres pro­vide in­no­v­a­tive tech­nolo­gies and ex­ten­sion ser­vices and thus help to in­crease small­hold­ers' in­comes, cre­ate em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties and im­prove the food sit­u­a­tion in rural ar­eas. In Benin, rice farm­ing will be one of the main fo­cus ar­eas.

In Togo, to­mor­row, Min­is­ter Müller will in­au­gu­rate the first vo­ca­tional train­ing course for mo­tor­cy­cle me­chan­ics based on the dual sys­tem.

'Togo is a young and vi­brant coun­try,' Müller said, 'a third of its pop­u­la­tion is be­tween 15 and 24 years of age. That is why the coun­try needs more than mod­ern tech­nol­ogy and an en­abling en­vi­ron­ment. More than any­thing else, it needs its peo­ple - qual­i­fied work­ers. In­vest­ing in good vo­ca­tional train­ing is an in­vest­ment in Togo's fu­ture!'

Un­der its de­vel­op­ment co­op­er­a­tion Ger­many is help­ing Togo to set up a dual sys­tem of vo­ca­tional train­ing for five trades.

Dur­ing his visit to Benin and Togo, Min­is­ter Müller will meet the pres­i­dents and sev­eral min­is­ters of both coun­tries for po­lit­i­cal talks. A main topic on the agenda will be the role of de­vel­op­ment co­op­er­a­tion in tack­ling the root causes of dis­place­ment.