ISLAMABAD: Smallholder farmers in Pakistan will benefit from a $100 million loan signed by the Asian Development Bank and Louis Dreyfus Company BV (LDC) that aims to help these landowners recover from the economic challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic and improve their resilience to climate change impacts.

The loan which was signed on Thursday will support LDC operations in Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam by financing coffee, cotton and rice inventories for over 50,000 smallholder farmers across these countries.

LDC, which is a global merchant and processor of agricultural goods, started operations in Pakistan in 2015 and has become one of the country’s leading merchants of both rice and cotton, and firmly established merchants of edible oils and soybeans.

In the area of cotton, LDC is playing a major role in the domestic cotton supply chain and import flows. In the case of rice, it is sourcing a variety of rice quantities locally for export to Africa and Asia. In oilseeds, LDC serves the needs of a diversified customer base across the country, and supply imported and refined palm oil and palm olein to local food processors.

The loan will help secure food supply chains and reliable incomes for smallholder farmers, and help offset the impact of supply chain disruptions due to the pandemic, the ADB said. “Smallholder farmers, who are already vulnerable to climate change, are facing increasing difficulties due to the pandemic, resulting in income loss, crop and food wastage, and supply chain disruptions,” said ADB Vice-President for Private Sector Operations and Public–Private Partnerships Ashok Lavasa.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2022