Shimla, June 13 (KNN) The Government of India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have signed a loan agreement worth USD 130 million to increase agricultural productivity, improve access to irrigation and promote horticulture agribusinesses in Himachal Pradesh.

Takeo Konishi, Country Director of ADB’s India Resident Mission, for ADB said, “The project builds upon a pilot financed by ADB’s project readiness facility which demonstrated the subtropical horticulture production over 200 hectares and prepared the draft water user association (WUA) act and the draft state horticulture development strategy.”

As per report, the project interventions will help increase the income and resilience to the effects of climate change of at least 15,000 farm households across 7 districts of the state namely Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra, Mandi, Sirmour, Solan, and Una.

It will also improve on-farm irrigation and water management in about 6,000 hectares of farmland by rehabilitating or building new irrigation schemes and strengthening the capacity of WUAs for micro irrigation management through joint efforts from the state’s Jal Shakti Vibhag (Water Resources Department) and Department of Horticulture (DOH).

The loan agreement will also aim to create an ecosystem to enhance farmers’ access to markets of subtropical horticulture. 

The farmers will be organised into cluster-wide community horticulture production and marketing associations (CHPMAs) and district-wide CHPMA cooperative societies. 

The project will modernise public and private subtropical horticulture nursery facilities for improved plant health, and boost beneficiary farmers’ access to information and communication technologies, and other digital agri-technology systems for real-time farm advisories and better CHPMA management.  (KNN Bureau)