Rural investment builds a promising future at home

IFAD 17 December 2025

Migration is high on the political agenda of both developed and developing nations. This won't change anytime soon. High levels of poverty and hunger, trade tensions and growing inequality mean more people are likely to leaves their homes in search of a better future. 

At IFAD, we believe migration should be a choice, not a necessity. No one should feel forced to leave their homes and their families in rural areas due to a lack of opportunities. 

Rural communities are essential for global food security, economic stability and sustainable development. Our investments enable people to transform them into engines of opportunity – where incomes are secure and young people can build futures. 

By strengthening food value chains from production to retail and fostering the development of rural businesses, we work with governments and partners to build long-term stability, resilience and economic growth. Just as interconnected vulnerabilities drive people to leave, our interconnected investments – combining public and private capital – create plenty of reasons to stay.

Home-grown opportunities

When people migrate from rural to urban areas, they are more likely to develop the intent to migrate internationally. For most people, it’s the first step – leaving home – that is the hardest.  

But in my time visiting rural areas, I’ve seen that farmers choose to stay when investments create new economic opportunities – and some even return home. 

Take Natalia and Ion, a couple who returned to Moldova from the United Kingdom to start a quail farm now supported by the Talent Retention for Rural Transformation Project (TRTP). Funded by IFAD and implemented in partnership with Moldova's Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry and UN Women, among others, TRTP aims to reduce poverty and prevent the migration of skilled individuals from rural areas by enhancing farmers' production, climate resilience and market access. 

With a loan and a grant from TRTP, Natalia and Ion bought a refrigerated van which helped them expand their distribution network, sell to restaurants and markets at competitive rates, and triple their sales. Their entire family is now involved in a business they're proud to build at home.  

Natalia and Ion’s story demonstrates how targeted rural financing can ease migratory pressures by generating stable, local value creation.

Boosting young rural entrepreneurs   

Research suggests that rural development reduces migratory pressures through its impacts on labour markets, especially when investments focus on creating jobs for young people.

In Nigeria, IFAD and social enterprise firm Babban Gona are helping young entrepreneurs, especially women, build their businesses. The partnership is stimulating wide-ranging economic growth, giving young people a stake in their societies and interrupting root causes of migration.

In 2021, the Fund provided Babban Gona a US$5 million loan – our first under the Private Sector Financing Programme. This catalytic financing has not only enabled Babban Gona to support 377,000 small-scale rice and maize producers in Nigeria with training, quality inputs and storage, and marketing services but has also catalysed twice that amount in funding from other sources.

Along the way, its members have become, collectively, the largest group of maize producers in Africa. This highlights the power of blended finance and strategic partnerships to strengthen value chains, locally.

Once those value chains are strengthened, the right partnerships can ensure they generate jobs for rural youth. The Integrated Youth Agribusiness Hub programme, funded by IFAD, Germany and the Visa Foundation, does so by catalysing collaboration between employers, training organizations and financial institutions. Thanks to hubs in nine African countries, about 42,000 young rural people now have decent employment and entrepreneurship opportunities – and no longer need to look further afield.

See https://www.ifad.org/en/w/opinions/rural-investment-builds-a-promising-future-at-home