Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Board (PHDEB) has suggested a two-pronged strategy ie short-term focusing on support to marketing efforts and long-term focusing on "grow for export" to extract maximum benefits from Chitral district's ecological niche for some agriculture products.
These products have high value in down town country markets, as these are grown at a time when they are not grown in the down country, ie off-season production.
According to an "assessment study of Chitral district," prepared by a two-member team, comprising PHDEB board member Ikramullah Khan and PHDEB Chief Executive Officer Shamoon Sadiq, there is ample potential for some of the temperate fruits of NWFP and Balochistan, which could be tapped, but required appropriate strategy and interventions to overcome the hurdles and issues which had impeded their exports.
The primary crops grown in Chitral region are maize, wheat, rice and potato. There are few commercial orchards, but most of the fruits are grown in home gardens.
The major fruits grown in this area are apple, pear, apricot, walnut, mulberry, pomegranate and persimmon. By and large, the crops are grown mostly for own consumption and to some extent on commercial scale mainly for local market. Pear variety "Shagore" has good potential for the export.
The team recommended that to achieve the targets of 500 million dollars, set for 2012, the PHDEB could not confine to a few products such as mango, kinnow and dates. "There is a need for product diversification incorporating other potential fruits and vegetables. Some of the temperate fruits of this area, which have export potential and are likely to fetch premium prices, are oranges, pears and apples," the team said.
In the past two decades, there had been a lot of donor-assisted projects and programmes, which had enabled the area to plant new fruit varieties and develop infrastructure and human resources. Instead of placing a new human resource (HR) infrastructure, the PHDEB should joint hands with the existing institutions such as Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP).
The team suggested that to have a sustainable programme, there was the need to establish a task force, based in Peshawar, which would have representatives from different districts of NWFP, including Chitral, Dir and Swat.
The task force would meet on regular basis and have the following mandate:
-- To develop overall and area/product specific strategies/action plans.
-- To utilise PHDEB's local human resource for planning and implementation of projects and programmes.
-- To co-ordinate with the provincial government for necessary support.
-- To work in close collaboration with the existing development institutions both public and private sectors.
-- To solicit financial support from donors and other institutions to implement projects.
The first step would be to create linkages between farmers and exporters. This would also require training of farmers in quality production, timely harvesting, and standardised packaging (normally provided by the exporter/buyer). If needed, the PHDEB would also support in marketing overseas by organising test marketing in potential overseas markets. As far as fruit collection is concerned, the AKRSP can play a major role in assembling fruit from various areas/farms according to the required specs to create volumes to meet buyers/exporters' demand.
-- Re-orient production according to export market requirements and encourage contract growing, which includes new varieties, nurseries, model farms, adoption of GAP, etc.
-- Develop necessary infrastructure such as cold storages, pack houses (grading plants), value addition industry, etc; and also complete the Batkhela Collection Point project.
-- Improve support services efficiency, which would include better logistics, storage, packaging, etc through private sector initiatives.
Institute regular training programmes for all the stakeholders especially farmers regarding GAP using FFS mode.