The loan will support LDC’s operations in India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam by financing coffee, cotton, and rice inventories for over 50,000 smallholder farmers across these countries. This will help secure food supply chains and reliable incomes for smallholder farmers, and help offset the impact of supply chain disruptions due to the pandemic.

An accompanying technical assistance (TA) grant will deliver capacity building and training activities that will reinforce the benefits of sustainable and climate-resilient agricultural practices for cotton farmers in India and coffee farmers in Indonesia. The TA will support pilot-testing of drip irrigation in cotton fields in India, and the use of biochar kilns in Indonesia. Assistance under the TA is expected to benefit about 4,000 farmers, particularly women farmers. The TA funding comprises US$205,000 from ADB’s Technical Assistance Special Fund for COVID Recovery and US$385,000 from the Strategic Climate Fund, administered by ADB.