ISLAMABAD, Jan 12: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has given Rs1,521 million to Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) to reduce poverty in the country.

This was stated by Zafar P Sabri, the general manager of PPAF at a one-day consultative workshop organized to finalize an action plan with 12 PPAF partner organizations. He informed the participants that the major focus of different interventions would be efficient management of water resources and sustainable agriculture.

Around 1000 sub projects related to drought mitigation, hydel power generation and water resource management would be carried out within next four years in different parts of Pakistan, he said.

Presiding over the first session of the workshop, Dr James Stevenson, Team Leader of USDA, said the financial support offered to PPAF would go a long way in alleviating poverty in Pakistan through different infrastructure schemes.

Kamal Hayat, the chief executive officer of the PPAF said Pakistani civil society needed to articulate its efforts for alleviating poverty at the grass roots level.