Croatia—Raising Incomes in Economically Distressed Areas (RIEDA)

RIEDA was a demand-driven agricultural project that extended the reach of the Croatia Agribusiness Competitiveness Enhancement project to bring small and part-time farmers in the Area of Special State Concern (ASSC) into the mainstream. The ASSC includes both urban and rural areas. The objective was to improve the competitive position of farmers to increase agricultural employment and incomes. DAI helped accomplish these objectives by leveraging already established market linkages for farmers in the economically distressed areas. DAI’s strategy was to focus on farmer organizations as support delivery platforms and as a cost-effective way to reach large numbers of small, geographically dispersed rural farmers. Direct technical assistance provided by DAI was enhanced by the use of business service providers that were receiving capacity strengthening support from the project.