Climate change / USD 70 million WB project for agriculture starts in February

2024-01-15 08:01:00, Ekonomi CNA

Climate change / USD 70 million WB project for agriculture starts in February

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The project that will support the agricultural sector in the context of climate change, approved in March 2023, is expected to become effective in February of this year.

The World Bank announced that this came as a result of the government's request, which requested that the new start date be February 15 of this year.

"The project was approved on March 16, 2023 and the loan agreement was signed on August 4, 2023. The loan has not yet been ratified by the Parliament and the project has not yet been declared effective.

At the request of the Government, has the new deadline of effectiveness been set, which is February 15, 2024. The ratification of the loan and then the effective announcement of the project by fulfilling the additional conditions of effectiveness before the new deadline, which is February 15, 2024, is critical for the timely start of project activities," the Bank announced in a preliminary project assessment document.

This financial institution is supporting the Climate Resilience and Agriculture Development project with a fund of 70 million dollars which is divided into three components.

In the first component is the promotion of climate-smart agriculture and access to markets at a cost of 44 million USD, the second is the increase of compliance with food safety and quality standards at a cost of 22 million USD, and the third is the strengthening of the analysis capacity of based on evidence from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and municipalities at a cost of 4 million USD.

The project's development objective is to increase the competitiveness and climate sustainability of priority agri-food value chains.

Some of the indicators that will be measured during this project are the sale of agricultural products by farmers through Micro Centers and food collection. Farmers connected with pressure and demand and public irrigation service in the project areas.

Total energy consumption for irrigation and drainage schemes covered by the renewable energy produced by the project. Agricultural activities in dedicated clusters or women's participation in activities related to food HUBs.

Climate change has become a real concern for various sectors in the global economy, and agriculture is one of them. Among the risks that threaten the sector is related to the reduction of productivity or the increase of pests in different regions due to the increase in temperatures, the intensity of rainfall or other indicators. The year 2023 is considered to be the hottest year ever globally since records began in 1850./Revista Monitor