ISLAMABAD: Financial and technical support can mitigate the impact of global economic meltdown and the effects of climate change on small farmers.

This was stated by Gulbaz Khan Afagi, the convener of Soon Valley Development Programme (SVDP), while talking to the media on Tuesday.

He said the SVDP, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), had in collaboration with the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) helped bring changes to disadvantaged communities through microfinance services.

`The traditional cropping and cultivation pattern has been replaced by innovative and efficient methods and modern irrigation techniques,` he said, adding the basic tools for these changes were sponsored through micro loans.

He said in order to counter power loadshedding, the SVDP extended microfinance loans in the renewable energy sector in 2011.

He said in the last four years, loans had been issued to more than 1,800 families in the Soon valley area of the Khushab district.

`More than 13,000 beneficiaries from these projects are getting self-generated electricity from solar or wind power, and gas for domestic consumption is being generated from cattle dung,` he said.

The Soon valley is part of the Salt Range and has saline underground water. Many utilities are limited in the region due to its remote location.

The first agreement between the SVDP and the PPAF on microfinance programmes took place in August 2005.

The SVDP currently operates with four branches, and provides microfinance loans to disadvantage communities, particularly in the agriculture, livestock, trade and commerce, and renewable energy sectors.