Question : For which state has ADB and India signed an agribusiness development loan agreement ?
a. Maharashtra
b. Madhya Pradesh
c. UP
d. Karnataka
Ans. a.
Related facts —
ADB and India recently(October 2021) signed an agribusiness development loan agreement for the state of Maharashtra.
Key points of the loan agreement —
- Objective — to promote agribusiness network to boost farm incomes and reduce food losses in the State of Maharashtra
- Loan amount — 100 million dollar
- Significance — Though Maharashtra produces 11% and 6% of India’s fruit and vegetable production, respectively, and accounts for about 8% of the country’s floriculture exports, most smallholder farmers lack capital to scale up and do not have direct access to emerging high-value markets.
The project will help small and marginal farmers in Maharashtra improve their post-harvest and marketing capacity, reduce food losses, and increase incomes through access to finance, capacity building, and horticulture value chain infrastructure development. - Benefits —
The project will upgrade 16 existing post-harvest facilities and construct 3 new ones to provide individual farmers and FPOs clean, accessible, and sustainable crop storage and processing facilities.
It will also build the capacity of FPOs and VCOs on value chain acceleration and post-harvest handling and management, especially those owned and led by women. The project is expected to benefit 200,000 farmers.
ADB will provide a $500,000 technical assistance (TA) grant from its Technical Assistance Special Fund and $2 million from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction on a grant basis to improve market linkages for FPOs.