By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Dec. 9: An agreement has been signed between the government of Nepal and the Agricultural Development Bank (ADBL) for the implementation of Value Chains for Inclusive Transformation of Agriculture (VITA) project.
The government and the ADBL have signed a subsidiary loan agreement worth USD 83.35 million.

The agreement was signed by Anil Kumar Upadhyay, Chief Executive Officer of the ADBL, and Dhakaram Tiwari, Acting Chief of the Public Debt Management Office on behalf of the government of Nepal, Tuesday.
According to the bank, the project is expected to benefit 125,000 farmers within a period of six years.

The project, which targets to develop and expand the agricultural value chain, aims to provide concessional loans to farmers as well as increase farmers' capacity in collaboration with Heifer International.
The ADBL will receive the loan amount through the Ministry of Finance with the assistance of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for a period of 30 years at an interest rate of 5 per cent.
The ADBL has been able to get this kind of concessional loan assistance after a long time, it said.

The bank said that such a programme would help the government of Nepal to reduce liquidity crunch in the banking market.