Iftikhar Ali claims that in order to support the vulnerable farming community, the Punjab government is donating $8 million to the FAO through the Unilateral Agreement Fund.
A unilateral trust fund agreement for the project to “transform the Indus basin into climate resilient agriculture and water management” was signed on Tuesday at the Planning and Development Department by the Punjab government and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The total cost of the project, which will be spent to achieve its goals, is US $47.69 million, of which US $34.99 million will be spent on a Green Climate Smart Grant and US $8.0 million will be provided by the Punjab government as co-financing for project implementation.
The project to “transform the Indus basin into climate resilient agriculture and water management” will increase the farming community’s capacity for adoption by lowering its exposure to climate threats on the farm and strengthening the regulatory framework.
Iftikhar Ali Sahoo, the secretary of agriculture for the Punjab government, and Florence Rolle, the FAO representative for Pakistan, both signed the agreement.
Speaking at the event, Florence Rolle stated that this project aims to strengthen public/private sector capacity for the development of climate smart agriculture and increase resilience to climate change among the most vulnerable farming communities in the Indus Basin.
Through the adoption and use of practises for on-farm management and resilient agriculture, the project will benefit more than 1.3 million people in the targeted districts of South Punjab, including D.G. Khan, Khanewal, Lodhran, Multan, and Muzaffargarh, according to Ali Sarfraz, Chairman of the P&D Department.
He continued by saying that the project would strengthen the institutional and legal foundation for irrigation, agriculture, and water management. Iftikhar Ali Sahoo claims that in order to support the vulnerable farming community, the Punjab government is donating $8 million to the FAO through the Unilateral Agreement Fund.
Along with other members of the FAO delegation, Ali Sarfraz, Chairman Planning & Development Department Punjab, Emelda Berejena, Technical Advisor GCF Project, and Javaid Aslam, Chief Engineer Irrigation.
There was also Rana Mehmood, the head of the planning and evaluation cell, as well as Habib Ullah Bodla, the director general of agriculture and water management, Malik Muhammad Akram, the director of agricultural information, and Muhammad Rafiq Akhtar.