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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $130 million loan to increase agricultural productivity and promote horticultural agribusiness to increase income for farmers in Himachal Pradesh, India.
“More than half of Himachal Pradesh is in the mountains and 90% of the population lives in rural areas that depend on agriculture,” said ADB Senior Agriculture and Natural Resources Specialist for South Asia Sunae Kim. .
“Improving subtropical horticulture in the state offers many economic opportunities for farmer households. Supporting horticulture value chains will also boost the subsector’s contribution to the country’s development and food security.”
The Himachal Pradesh Subtropical Horticulture, Irrigation and Value Addition Project will contribute to increasing the income and resilience to the effects of climate change for at least 15,000 farming households in Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra, Mandi, Sirmour, Solan and Una.
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The project will improve on-farm irrigation and water management on some 6,000 hectares of farmland by rehabilitating and building new irrigation facilities, establishing new water sources and building the capacity of user associations of water and Jal Shakti Vibhag (Department of Water Resources).
Farmers will organize themselves into community horticultural production and marketing associations (CHPMA) and district CHPMA cooperative societies.
They will be introduced to other agricultural practices such as intercropping, beekeeping and other modern agronomic knowledge and techniques.
A State-level Farmer Producer Company (FPC) will also be created to lead agribusiness development with the goal of ensuring profitability and market access for subtropical horticulture.
The FPC will be in charge of developing business plans, promoting agribusiness, and designing value-added facilities, such as sorting and packaging facilities, and storage and collection centers.
