The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

The World Bank Thursday approved an IDA credit of US$62.60 million to assist the government in revitalizing the national agricultural technology system to improve agricultural productivity and farm income.

The National Agricultural Technology Project isdesigned to enhance the effectiveness of the nationalagricultural technology system. It will be implemented over a period of 15years in three phases, with a total IDA commitment ofabout US$180 million, said a press release. The credit from the International DevelopmentAssociation (IDA), the World Bank's concessionary arm, has 40 years to maturity with a 10-year grace period. It carries a service charge of 0.75 percent.

The project will finance activities related to agricultural research, agricultural extension, and supply chain, including strengthening of national institutions involved in agricultural research and extension. Accounting for about 22 percent of GDP, agriculture is vital to Bangladesh. Another 33 percent of GDP is contributed by the rural non-farm economy, which is largely linked to agriculture.

Over the last three decades, there has been a significant increase in the production of rice to achieve near self-sufficiency in food grains. However, this is threatened by increasing population, declining land base, and stagnating yields, the release said. "Growth of the agriculture and the rural non-farmsectors is critical to reducing poverty in Bangladesh," said Xian Zhu, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh.

"Improved agricultural research and technology will be critical to achieve this growth and accelerate for the process of diversification into higher value crops and post-harvest processing," he said. The project will also support a decentralizeddemand-led agricultural extension program with greater accountability and responsiveness to farmers, with a focus on small and marginal farmers.

To increase and diversify sources of income for smalland marginal farmers, the project will supportdevelopment of supply chains of selected commoditiesthrough financing activities related to strengtheningfarmer-market linkages.