ISLAMABAD, Aug 30: The Agribusiness Development and Diversification Project and Livestock and Diary Development Board here on Thursday signed an agreement to provide grants to thousands of small farmers in various parts of the country for making an entry into the agribusiness sector.

The agreement was signed by Arshad H. Hashmi, project director, on behalf of the federal ministry of food, agriculture and livestock and Dr M. Afzal, chief executive of the Livestock and Dairy Development Board (LDDB).

About 12,500 farmers will benefit from the grant funded through the Agribusiness Support Fund, a component of the project, over the project life of five years.

A number of institutions will develop dedicated agribusiness finance functions, which is supposed to benefit 10,000 agro enterprises by improving access to finance.

This is expected to create direct employment for 100,000 people and indirect employment for another 700,000.

Under the capacity building activity, 25,000 farmers will receive on-farm technical training while over 5,000 entrepreneurs will receive technical and managerial training.

The overall focus of the project is on strengthening and supporting demand-driven private sector service delivery mechanisms throughout the agribusiness value-chain, including supply inputs, production and processing and developing cool chain for domestic and export markets with specific focus on horticulture and hortibusiness and livestock and dairy business.

Under the agreement, the LDDB will coordinate with national and provincial activities in livestock and dairy, promote investment in the sector and promote livestock and dairy as primary vehicle for poverty-alleviation among small and landless farmers, especially women.

It will also lay emphasis on production and post-production technologies in livestock and dairy, particularly in improving marketing and efficient processing technology and use of livestock byproducts that lead to better quality and traceability of livestock and associated products to satisfy international compliant standard.

The LDDB will collaborate in the comprehensive livestock and dairy study commissioned by Minfal by supporting the consultants fielded by the project.

The study will clearly identify constraints and suggest possible ways to improve livestock and dairy sub-sectors and determine possible agro-enterprise intervention for future support.

The findings and recommendations of the study will provide a basis for a livestock and dairy policy that would be prepared by LDDB.

The Minfal will take all necessary steps to ensure that LDDB operates as an autonomous private sector company and will be responsible for channeling project funds to the LDDB and extending all possible support to LDDB in facilitating its activities as defined in this agreement.

It will undertake a review of the performance of LDDB as well as its impact on livestock and dairy sector.

If the LDDB fails to achieve the desired results, Minfal and / or the project steering committee reserve the right to take appropriate action to ensure that objectives are met by the LDDB management.

Agribusiness is a mega project sponsored by the Minfal with the technical and financial assistance of the Asian Development Bank.

The executing agencies include Minfal, Department of Agricultural and Livestock Products Marketing and Grading, the State Bank of Pakistan, provincial agriculture, livestock and marketing departments and agriculture and livestock departments of Fata, Fana and Azad Jammu Kashmir.

The project has its headquarters in Islamabad and its implementation offices are in Punjab, Sindh, NWFP, Balochistan, Fata, Fana and AJK.