$200 million World Bank loan for national agricultural scheme

New Delhi, July 24 (UNI) The World Bank today signed an agreement with India for a soft loan of 200 million US dollars (IDA funding) to promote collaboration between agricultural research organisations, farmers and other stakeholders.

The National Agriculture Innovation Project Agreement aims to contribute to the sustainable transformation of Indian agricultural sector from a primarily food self-sufficient economy to one in which a market orientation is equally important for poverty alleviation and income generation.

Mr Madhu Sudan Prasad, Joint Secretary (FB), Department of Economic Affairs signed the agreement on behalf of the Government of India while Mr Michael Carter, Country Director (India), the World Bank, and Dr Mruthyunjaya, Director, Indian Council of Agriculture Research signed on behalf of their respective organisations.

The project, which will be implemented over a period of six years, is aimed at accelerating the collaborative development and application of agricultural innovations between public research organisations, farmers, private sector and other stakeholders.

Besides making ICAR the catalysing agent for management of change in the Indian NARS, the other components of the project are to promote research on production to consumption systems; research on sustainable rural livelihood security; and basic and strategic research in the frontier areas of agricultural science.

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