(MENAFN- Morocco World News) Rabat – The African Development Bank (ADB) has granted Morocco a loan of USD 88 million to finance the second phase of the Support Project for the National Program for Water and Irrigation Economics (PAPNEEI2).
This loan, signed on Tuesday in Rabat, is expected to contribute to the Kingdom's efforts to increase the productivity of the agricultural sector and enable the exploitation of agricultural water and its economy in large irrigated areas.
The PAPNEEI 2 will finance the installation of irrigation infrastructures located in the Loukkos and Doukkala areas on a surface of ??26,000 ha.
Its implementation over the period 2017-2021 will benefit 10,250 farms, a population of more than 61,000 beneficiaries mainly composed of small farmers.
This project consolidates ADB's new support strategy for the period 2017-2021, which has a dual objective: to promote green industrialization by small and medium-sized enterprises and the export sector, and to improve conditions through the employment of young population, women, and rural workers.
Aziz Akhannouch, the Minister of Agriculture, highlighted the importance of this investment program, which aims to combine water-saving irrigation in order to market agricultural products with an important added value.
In nearly half a century, the partnership between Morocco and the ADB Group has so far included 31 operations totaling EUR 2.2 billion in financing in transport, energy, water and sanitation, agriculture, of which 85 percent is dedicated to infrastructure.
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