A three-member delegation of Agribusiness Development & Diversification Project, Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal), Government of Pakistan met the members of the Task Force of Mango Growers Association Pakistan (MGAP) in a local hotel here on Monday.
To discuss strategy to initiate Competitive Business Development (CBD) in mango industry for demand driven technical and managerial services on a matching grant basis to improve their productivity, competitiveness and profitability.
Minfal delegation comprised of the Management Co-ordinator, Agribusiness Development Project (ADP), Asad Rana, National Co-ordinator ADP, Asmatullah and Provincial Co-ordinator ADP, Punjab, Tajammal Nisar.
The delegation apprised the members of the MGAP on the necessity to commence Agribusiness Support Fund (ASF) with the support of Asian Development Bank (ADB) to strengthen and support demand driven private-sector service delivery mechanism throughout the agribusiness value chain.
President of the MGAP, Zahid Hussain Gardezi speaking during the discussion desired that factual statistics and real growers support indicators should be identified by close interaction with the growers at all levels to exhort maximum benefits from the ASF.
He said that MGAP desire to play focal role in dispensation of this support program, which should had indigenous mechanism near to ground realities, so that commercially viable agribusiness enterprises of varying sizes in mango industry could be developed to meet the global and domestic demands of the consumers for value added returns to the producer. He demanded representation of MGAP in the Board of Directors of ASF to feel the real pulse of the mango growers to understand their problems.
It was decided to go forward with variant ranged strategies, terms of reference for which will be developed by the MGAP with the focal support of ADP. The MGAP members, who participated in the discussion were Ghulam Farid Khakwani, Saleem Khan Alizai, Major Syed Zahid Ali Bukhari (Retd), Muzaffar Hayat Khan, Nasrullah Khan Tareen, Syed Khizer Abbas, Major Muhammad Tariq Khan (Retd), Muhammad Ansar Jamal and Mehr Maqbool Jangla.