The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide a soft term loan of $42 million to help improve productivity of rain-fed lands in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan, says an ADB statement. ADB's loan, from its concessional Asian Development Fund, carries a 32-year term, a grace period of 8 years, and an interest rate of 1% per annum during the grace period and 1.5% thereafter. The Pakistan government will contribute $15.4 million towards the project's total estimated cost of $60.4 million, while the beneficiaries will shoulder the balance of $3 million. Pakistan's Ministry of States and Frontier Regions is the executing agency for the project, which is due for completion in June 2011. The project will be undertaken in three of the northern districts of Bajaur, Khyber and Mohmand, where dry and rocky land is mostly not suitable for farming yet the poorest families must earn their living as sharecroppers or through agricultural labor. The project is targeted to increase the productivity of about 52,500 hectares of rain-fed lands and benefit about 37,500 households. The project will promote integrated resource management to improve productivity and arrest the degradation of the environment in the tribal areas. It will help improve farming and livestock rearing practices by selecting appropriate technologies and training farmers, and will promote effective forestry and range management. In addition, it will conduct work to improve availability of irrigation and drinking water supplies, as well as roads to improve accessibility between adjacent valleys and villages.
