TOBA TEK SINGH: A four-member World Bank (WB) delegation on Sunday visited Faisalabad to inspect various schemes being run under the Punjab Resilient and Inclusive Agriculture Transformation (PRIAT) Project.

The delegation consisting of four experts -- Dr Guo Li, Glivier Durand, John Saint and Maha Ahmed -- visited different water management schemes, including watercourses improvement, high-efficiency irrigation system, on-farm water storage facilities, installation of solar system, laser land-leveling and value chain system under PRIAT.

A press release issued on Sunday by Faisalabad Water Management (WM) Director Dr Muhammad Asif says the WB team was also accompanied by Punjab WM Director General Malik Muhammad Akram.

The team was briefed that PRIAT’s main objective is to enhance on-farm water productivity and farmers’ income in proposed sub-project areas.

The entire province of Punjab will be covered under the project, where relevant interventions would be carried out in various regions.

The main beneficiaries of the project will include rural households and small farmers, while it will focus on improving the agriculture growth.

It added that the project will especially focus on south Punjab, which is historically an under-served region.

Dr Guo Li explained that PRIAT would help reduce the incidence of poverty in rural households associated with agriculture by improving agricultural growth, especially among small farmers.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2022