World Bank credit for Rajasthan farm project

The World Bank will extend $109-million credit for a project in Rajasthan to increase agricultural productivity in the State.

The Rajasthan Agricultural Competitiveness Project will cover a total of two lakh hectares of land across ten agro-ecological zones, benefitting around 1.55 lakh small farmers. It will focus on efficient water management, crop management, application of improved farm technology and bringing about market innovations to increase productivity and thereby the income of the farmers.

Rajasthan, which constitutes 10 per cent of the country's land area and five per cent of the population, is facing acute water shortage. The situation worsened in the wake of erratic rainfall and recurring droughts. Over the last 100 years, on an average, every district in the State has gone through drought in some form or the other for half of the time, says a World Bank report.

The project will tap into both surface and ground water resources to raise agricultural productivity per unit of water through efficient management. At the same time, this is expected to prompt farmers to move from low-value and often water-guzzling crops to high-value farming.

It is pointed out that Rajasthan holds the potential for diversifying into higher-value and less water-consuming sectors like horticulture, floriculture, spice and medicinal plant cultivation. However, achieving sustainable water resources management practices in agriculture is at the core of the present project.