International Fund for Agricultural Development

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United Nations (UN) specialized agency that supports increased food production in poor communities. Partly in response to severe famines in the southern Sahara in the early 1970s, the 1974 World Food Conference adopted a resolution that established IFAD in November 1977. The organization is headquartered in Rome, Italy. IFAD’s mandate is to provide funding and other resources for programs that help poor farmers and pastoralists as well as landless...