ISLAMABAD, Aug 19: The United States and Pakistan on Tuesday signed two amendments to their bilateral agreements on development assistance.

These amendments establish the basis for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for providing $15.4 million more to projects that strengthen agricultural production and improve the health of mothers and children in Pakistan.

“Today’s agreement is another sign of the Unites States’ commitment to Pakistan,” said USAID/Pakistan Acting Mission Director Edward Birgells. “This money will go to projects that directly reach and benefit the Pakistani people.”Signed by Edward Birgells and Junaid Iqbal Chaudhary, Acting Secretary for Economic Affairs Division, the amendments provide approximately $8.9 million to agriculture projects that help Pakistani farmers adopt techniques to increase productivity.

Previous USAID projects in agriculture have increased participating farmer’s incomes by more than 19 per cent.

The remaining $6.5 million will be placed into a USAID maternal and child health programme that trains Pakistani health professionals and renovates health facilities, providing life-saving care to Pakistani mothers, newborns and children.

Since 2002 United States has provided more than $2 billion to Pakistan to improve health, education, economic growth and democratic governance and to reconstruct areas affected by the October 2005 earthquake.