ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the World Bank signed agreements worth $305 million on Friday to support projects in the agriculture sector in Punjab and to improve the nutritional status of children and women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The Strengthening Markets for Agriculture and Rural Transformation (SMART) in Punjab programme will get a loan of $300m.

The SMART Punjab programme is aimed to help the provincial government promote transformational changes in the crop and livestock subsectors by focusing on activities contributing to three result areas: increased on-farm productivity and value of crops and livestock; increased value addition and competitiveness of crops and livestock; and enhanced resilience of smallholder farmers to climate change and natural disasters.

Each results area involves a specific combination of policy reforms, institutional strengthening and public investments. While the World Bank will provide loan of $300m for the project, the Punjab government will contribute $1,290m towards the project.

The government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa will get an additional financing of $5m on grant basis for the enhanced nutrition for mothers and children project.

The objective of the grant is to scale-up nutrition intervention in the province and improve the nutritional status of children under two-years of age, as well as pregnant and lactating women.

Secretary Economic Affairs Division, Arif Ahmed Khan signed the loan and grant agreements on behalf of government of Pakistan while representatives of the provincial governments signed their respective project agreements.

World Bank Country Director, Patchamuthu Illangovan signed the loan and grant agreements and the project agreements on behalf of World Bank.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2018