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Ammon News - The World Bank has agreed to provide $125 million to finance a Jordanian project that supports agricultural development and value chains through resilience to climate change and sustainability.

The total value of the project may reach $762 million, funded by the government and trust funds, as the project is based on Jordan's National Sustainable Agriculture Plan (2022-2025), both in terms of its development objectives, priority activities and main results.

The project addresses challenges faced by the agricultural sector in Jordan through partnership between the public and private sectors, and enhances the resilience of the agricultural production system in the face of climate change and transforms the sector towards a more sustainable growth path.

It is also set to contribute to improving the competitiveness of the agri-food sector by strengthening the enabling environment for agribusiness and making the sector more attractive for investment.

The agricultural food sector in Jordan is an important source of income, employment and exports and has a lot of untapped potential, pointing out that a quarter of Jordan's poor depend on agriculture for their income, according to what the World Bank indicated in the project paper.

Although primary agriculture contributes only a small percentage of GDP, the broader agri-food sector contributes a much larger share when accounting for related value chain activities,” according to the paper, which showed that increased investments in the food sector could lead to increased investment in the food sector. Agriculture will create rural employment opportunities at the farm level and along the value chain.

"Agricultural production and value chains have the opportunity to serve the growing local market and contribute to food security”, the Bank stated.

The Bank also explained that climate change "severely affects" agriculture in Jordan through rising temperatures and declining rainfall, warning of the recurrence of droughts and the increased requirements of water crops.

Jordan is among the most water-scarce countries in the world, as climate change will lead to a further decrease in water availability,” according to the World Bank, which stressed that improving water use efficiency in irrigated agriculture could build resilience. and resilience in the face of water scarcity and the effects of climate change.