IFAD plans 3 new projects; to focus on Hindi belt

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New Delhi In keeping with its strategy of focusing on improving rural people's access to economic and social resources, the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), a UN agency, plans to assist three new projects in Rajasthan, West Bengal and Maharashtra.

‘‘The project details are in different stages of finalisation and will be launched in the next three to five years. This year onward, we have planned to concentrate in the Hindi belt,’’ said IFAD president, Lennart Bage, who was recently in India to participate in the first Global Agro-Industries Forum conference in Delhi.

In Rajasthan, the project would aim at mitigating poverty in the western part of the state, while the project for sustainable livelihoods in coastal fisheries will be implemented in West Bengal. Another project for sustainable livelihood is slated to start in the suicide-prone districts of Maharashtra.

IFAD has financed 21 programmes in India since 1979, including a highly concessional loan of about $565 million. At present, IFAD has seven ongoing loan programmes extending assistance of about $200 million to seven programmes in 11 states. These include the north-eastern region community resource management project for upland areas, Jharkhand-Chhattisgarh tribal development programme, Orissa tribal empowerment and livelihoods programme, livelihoods improvement project for the Himalayas, Post-Tsunami sustainable livelihoods programme and Tejaswini rural women’s empowerment programme.

According to IFAD’s country report, Portraits of Resolve, the Orissa project changed the lives of the tribals along the Muktikhana Jhola catchment area in Kalahandi district after 36 structures were built in the area to prevent flash floods. This project also generated 300 wage-days of labour. LIPH has increased the livelihoods of Thangrain village in Meghalaya.