World Bank approves $120m for Bangladesh’s irrigation based agriculture

The World Bank approved $120 million to help Bangladesh improve food security by enhancing climate resilience and productivity of irrigated agriculture and fisheries.

In a press release published on Tuesday (9 March), the World Bank said, "The Climate-Smart Agriculture and Water Management Project will rehabilitate and modernize public Flood Control, Drainage, and Irrigation (FCDI) infrastructures. This will help improve irrigation and drainage service over 115,000 hectares where flood damage to crops will be reduced by 60 percent."

The project will help increase the incomes of 170,000 poor people who are vulnerable to climate change. Half of the beneficiaries will be women, it added.

Mercy Tembon, country director of World Bank for Bangladesh and Bhutan, said more than 70% of the population of Bangladesh who are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood are vulnerable to climate and natural disasters.

"Climate-resilient water management provided in this project combined with increased agricultural productivity will ensure income growth, protect livelihoods and build resilience of the local communities to climate change," she said.

According to the World Bank press release, the project has identified 19 FCI schemes in poor and climate change vulnerable areas for rehabilitation. It will also provide training to farmers on climate-smart technologies, experimentation with new crops, and post-harvest management.

The project will also support the promotion of coastal aquaculture, including the integration of rice and fish/shrimp farming; setting up of cold storage facilities; and, improvements of local markets. This will improve the productivity of fisheries by almost 40 percent and rice by 7.5 percent, it reads.

"Flood control and drainage systems play a critical role to ensure agricultural productivity and growth. Repairing and upgrading of the selected schemes will improve their capacity to regulate the excess water during the monsoon and water deficits in the post-monsoon period," said Abel Lufafa, senior agriculture specialist of the World Bank and task team leader for the project.

The credit is from the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA), and has a 35-year term, including a five-year grace period.

Bangladesh currently has the largest ongoing IDA program totaling over $13.5 billion. The World Bank was among the first development partners to support Bangladesh and has committed more than $33.5billion in grants, interest-free and concessional credits to the country since its Independence.