The loan from ADB will help Mongolia in improving its vegetable production while increasing the resilience of irrigation networks
Image: ADB supports modernisation of irrigation in Mongolia. (Credit: Pixabay/Couleur.)
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to provide $40m in loans to support the modernisation of irrigation networks and vegetable production in Mongolia.
The overall cost of the project is expected is $46.25m. ADB will provide a concessional loan of $25.3m and a regular loan of $14.7m and the government of Mongolia will provide $4.25m for the total cost of the project.
ADB has also agreed to offer $2m co-financing grant from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR). The grant has supported several projects in Mongolia in reducing poverty, improving livelihoods and safeguarding environment over the past two decades.
The loan from ADB will help in building an efficient and climate-resilient irrigation infrastructure and management systems to improve the sustainability of agriculture and strengthen the technical, institutional and management capacity and coordination.
ADB senior natural resources economist Jan Hinrichs said: “The project will promote income and employment generation in rural areas. This will be achieved by diversifying traditional low-value grain crops into high-value vegetables.”
Specifically, the project aims to upgrade, modernise and climate-proof 12 selected schemes and directly associated infrastructure to provide irrigation services for 7,000 hectares of land. Nearly 3,458 households, including 1,041 poor households could benefit from the project.
The project will include the implementation of high-efficiency irrigation technology in cold regions, summer and winter greenhouses along with easy-to-use asset management systems with remote-sensing technology.
ADB believes that technology will help in detecting irrigation performance while resolving problems immediately.