POVERTY FIGHT:Seeking to increase incomesThe World Bank has approved US$80 million to help increase incomes and reduce poverty in rural areas of the country.The cash is the last instalment of the Bank’s support towards the Rural Sector Support Project (RSSP3), now going to its third phase. The credit has a 10-year grace period.The project builds upon the progress achieved by the Government since 2001 in seeking to attain its strategic goal of unlocking rural growth."The World Bank is pleased to work with the Government to extend the already successful growth-stimulating rural sector support activities of the first two phases, while emphasising diversification of economic activities to increase and stabilise rural incomes,” Hardwick Tchale, World Bank Senior Agricultural Economist and the Project Task Team Leader, said in a statement. The money will be channelled towards expansion of irrigated areas of cultivated marshlands, sustainable land use practices, and financing of economic infrastructure in selected communities.It is hoped that the funds would increase agricultural productivity in marshlands and hillsides in the sub-watersheds targeted for development. RSSP project coordinator, Jolly Dusabe, said since the funds go directly to rural communities it creates a direct impact.If properly implemented, the project will see 6,000 more hectares of irrigated marshlands developed and at least 17,000 additional hectares of hillsides rehabilitated. Dusabe said the third phase of the project for which the money was released is likely to be launched by April this year."The early approval of World Bank funds is a sign of confidence in how the project is being implemented and the impact it created,” Dusabe told The Business Times yesterday. The project had three phases with the last one scheduled to end in 2017.A report produced by the project (RSSP) indicates that 12 percent of the project’s beneficiaries were connected to electricity.The report also says beneficiaries had a general impression that life had improved over recent years in terms of improved standards of living.