ADB approves $42.9m for Fata irrigation project

Published December 18, 2014
The project will be completed in March 2020 and Fata secretariat will be the executing agency. – Dawn/file
The project will be completed in March 2020 and Fata secretariat will be the executing agency. – Dawn/file

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan of $42.9 million to provide reliable irrigation for farmlands and non-cultivated lands in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) of Pakistan.

The project will be completed in March 2020 and Fata secretariat will be the executing agency, said a statement issued by the ADB on Thursday.

ADB’s concessional Asian Development Fund is funding the project with counterpart funds from the government of Pakistan amounting $4.9 million.

“Irrigated farmlands in Fata will boost productivity and enable farmers to earn higher incomes by producing higher-value crops, including vegetables,” Donneth Walton, an ADB Principal Natural Resources and Agriculture Specialist was quoted as saying in the statement.

“This will reduce poverty and boost household food security,” Walton said.

Fata is located along Pakistan’s northwestern border with Afghanistan and is spread over 27,000 square kilometers. The project area consists of three of seven semi-autonomous Fata agencies namely Bajaur, Khyber, and Mohmand with a population of 2.6 million whose vast majority depends on agriculture, livestock, and natural resources for their livelihood.

Pakistan has been battling militants in this semi-autonomous tribal belt since 2004, after its army entered the region to search for Al Qaeda fighters who had fled across the border following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

According to the statement today, poor water resource management has become a major obstacle to increasing productivity and improving the living conditions of the Fata inhabitants.

Due to low rainfall, many farmers in the project area rely on rain fed subsistence agriculture, which produces food staples such as wheat and maize. Some rely for irrigation mainly on groundwater taken from wells, with little utilisation of surface water.

As per the project, irrigated agriculture in Fata will be expanded through better use of the region’s surface water resources. Instead of building costly water infrastructure, the project will use simple and small irrigation schemes that can be maintained by the local communities, including small gravity dams.

The project will also improve farm water management through activities such as terracing and land levelling, and watershed management through afforestation of the degraded watersheds.

Follow Dawn Business on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook for insights on business, finance and tech from Pakistan and across the world.

Opinion

Editorial

Throttling connectivity
Updated 15 Aug, 2024

Throttling connectivity

Now the authorities seem to have decided that WhatsApp has replaced X as the new staging ground for dissent and are tightening the noose.
Targeting TTP
15 Aug, 2024

Targeting TTP

IF the priority being given to it by the security apparatus is any indication, terrorism seems to be metastasising...
Transgender justice
15 Aug, 2024

Transgender justice

TRANSPHOBIC attitudes, conflicting emotions among men and easy access to weapons have turned parts of the country,...
Rebuilding a dream
Updated 14 Aug, 2024

Rebuilding a dream

"True" independence — and not in the sense of a political slogan — can only be achieved when Pakistan’s children are assured of a better tomorrow.
A general’s arrest
14 Aug, 2024

A general’s arrest

A PAKISTAN Army general who had once seemed all-powerful has been arrested by his own institution for a list of...
No exceptions
14 Aug, 2024

No exceptions

CAREER civil services officer Rashid Mahmood Langrial, who recently became the ninth person to be appointed head of...