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India and ADB signed _____ million loan agreement to boost horticulture in Himachal Pradesh.
A)
$110
B)
$130
C)
$150
D)
$200

Correct Answer :   $130


The central government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on 8 June 2023 signed a loan agreement worth $130 million, the finance ministry said in a statement on Monday (12th June 2023).

Aim : The deal aims to increase farmers‘ income and improve access to irrigation in Himachal Pradesh.

Signing ceremony : The Himachal Pradesh Subtropical Horticulture, Irrigation, and Value Addition Project was attended by Rajat Kumar Mishra, Additional Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, representing the Government of India, and Takeo Konishi, Country Director of ADB’s India Resident Mission.

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

According to the ministry, the project interventions will help increase the income and resilience to the effects of climate change of at least 15,000 farm households across seven districts in the state - Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra, Mandi, Sirmour, Solan, and Una.

These households have stopped farming or have reduced their farming areas because of a lack of irrigation facilities and crop damage by wild and stray animals, it added.

“The project will improve on-farm irrigation and water management in about 6,000 hectare 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 ministry said.

The project Aim : To establish an ecosystem that enables farmers to access subtropical horticulture markets seamlessly. To facilitate this, farmers will be organized into cluster-wide community horticulture production and marketing associations (CHPMAs), as well as district-wide CHPMA cooperative societies. Overseeing these efforts will be a farmer producer company (FPC), acting as the apex institution for state-wide agribusiness development.

Published On : June 13, 2023
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