Japan has allocated $8.7 million for agriculture development in the Afghan Herat
Almaty. March 3. Silkroadnews – The government of Japan has provided Afghanistan with a $8.7 million grant to support agriculture in the western province of Herat, Afghan news agency (AfTAG) informs.
The appropriate agreement was signed in Kabul by Kenji Enoshita, Charge d’Affaires ad interim of Embassy of Japan to Afghanistan, and Mohammad Haider Reza, Director a.i. United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) Afghanistan Operational Hub.
The project is aimed at providing farmers and cooperatives with access to the domestic and international markets. This should significantly raise the agricultural sector income in the province of Herat.
The project includes repairing of two large agro markets, building a warehouse equipped with refrigerators, carrying out agricultural fair, and shall be implemented until March 2019. It is expected, directly or indirectly, to improve the quality of life for more than 300 thousand people living in the province.
The representative of Japan emphasized that Afghanistan has a great potential to deliver the agricultural products to the international markets. In particular, if the point in case is about almonds, pomegranates, pistachios, raisins, apricot, saffron and other crops growing in the Afghan climate.
It is worth noting that Japan is one of the major donor to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, e.g. recently it has allocated $3.3 million to support the urban development in the provinces of Balkh and Kabul.
