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By APD writer Muhammad Sohail
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 16 (APD) -- The World Bank has approved 300 million US dollars as a loan to modernize agriculture in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province leading to betterment of farmers’ incomes and increase in farms related jobs, a statement said on Saturday.
Illango Patchamuthu, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan, said that the main aim of the fund is to raise farmers’ incomes, give consumers better quality and safer food at lower prices, create jobs on farms and agribusinesses, and improve the use of irrigation water.
The resources provided by the World Bank would be part of a larger programme by the Government of Punjab that aims to better harness the enormous potential for farming in the province, with its fertile soils and extensive irrigation system, said the statement.
The program might address the paradox that while Punjab’s farmers earn too little, people pay high prices for low-quality food, it added.
This situation is largely the result of farm policies of Pakistan that have hardly changed in the last 50 years, including extensive subsidies which are always proven inefficient and ineffective.
It is a reality that Pakistani government’s spending does not provide widespread benefits and results in wasteful water use.
Illango opined that agriculture in Punjab has great potential but requires a paradigm shift to unlock growth opportunities.
The programme is estimated to create 350,000 jobs and lift 1.7 million people from poverty.
The official hoped that the World Bank-supported Strengthening Markets for Agriculture and Rural Transformation (SMART) project would support much-needed reforms for agriculture and livestock productivity, improve agriculture’s resilience to climate change, and foster agribusiness in Punjab over the next five years.
Additionally, SMART will help improve the sustainability of agricultural production by strengthening the management of irrigation water and help tackle groundwater depletion.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
