Announcement of Morocco Agriculture Sector Investment Loan on September 20, 1991

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A. e Telephone: (202) 477-1234 BANK NEWS RELEASE NO. 92/14 Contact: Fawzi Rihane Tel: (202) 473-2675 MOROCCO: AGRICULTURE SECTOR INVESTMENT LOAN The following is additional information on a project announced in the latest issue of World Bank News. DATE: September 20, 1991 WORLD BANK GROUP SUPPORT: World Bank loan: $50 million. The loan is for 20 years, including five years of grace, with a variable interest rate, currently 7.73 percent, linked to the cost of the Bank's borrowings. It also carries an annual commitment charge of 0.25 percent on the undisbursed balance. TOTAL COST: $640 million OTHER FINANCING: Ongoing IBRD loans, $70 million; Government of Morocco, $390 million; Other donors, $130 million IMPLEMENTING AGENCY: Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: 1994 PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The objective of the Agriculture Sector Investment Loan is to support a well-conceived investment program in Morocco's agricultural sector. The program being supported is a time- slice of the government's 1991-92 investment program in agriculture (estimated at $640 million). The World Bank loan will finance about 8 percent of this program. It will also promote essential policy reform measures to improve the investment process, strengthen the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform's institutional capacity, and continue to advance key sector policy issues, notably in the livestock and irrigation subsectors. The project will finance specific critical investments selected from the government's two-year investment program, including small- and medium-scale irrigation; crop diversification and area development, including roads; de-stoning and land consolidation; equipment for plant protection; forest management plans and plantation establishment; and technical equipment, vaccines, and rangeland improvement for livestock. The project will also finance a technology development program promoting: (a) better soil cultivation, seed bed preparation, and crop management through use of appropriate tractor- drawn farm implements; (b) more efficient small-scale irrigation; (c) improved crop storage; (d) improved livestock production through better stock and feeding; (e) fruit tree planting as part of crop diversifi- cation measures; and (f) land improvement. Policy measures supported by the project include reforms in the investment process (budget execu- tion, institutional strengthening, and project selection); livestock sector reforms; and improved recovery of irrigation water charges.