Horticulture promotion and livestock development are the two main focus areas in the rural areas in Sindh, which have been selected for formulation of provincial horticulture policy.
These would be priority areas in the Ministry of Food, Agriculture & Livestock's Agribusiness Development & Diversification project which has been launched in all provinces, AJK, FATA and FANA during 2005-06 with the assistance of Asian Development Bank at a cost of Rs 4,066 million. It aims to promote private sector Agro-Enterprises Development throughout the whole value chain.
The primary focus of the project is on development of Agribusiness in Horticulture, Livestock and Dairy sub-sectors, to help in the production and export of high value-added crops such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, livestock and dairy products. It also aims to trains 25,000 farmers in the agribusiness sector. This will also create job opportunities, improve the standard of living of people of rural areas and alleviate poverty.
A Focus Group meeting was organised by the Agribusiness Development & Diversification Project Implementation Office, Sindh, in connection with the formulation of provincial horticulture policy here on April 21. The meeting was presided over by the consultant on horticulture policy, Dr Zar Qureshi, and attended by senior officials, including provincial co-ordinator Moula Bux Lund, Director, Research, Mirpurkhas, exporters, processors and other stakeholders.
The Government of Pakistan, in collaboration with the Agriculture & Livestock Departments of Sindh, is striving to diversify the income base of government with particular emphasis of Sindh province and farmers through export and domestic market.
According to details available here on Tuesday, a large number of exporters of fruits, vegetable, entrepreneurs, growers, cold chain operators, agriculture input suppliers, officers of the agriculture department, Sindh participated in group discussions.
Identification of potential areas, priority commodity and products and deliberations were held on how to improve the service delivery system of the government departments and to facilitate various stakeholders in the production, processing, marketing and export of various commodities and products according to quality standard and WTO regulations. Detailed discussions were held on how to meet the quality standards, competitive production cost, and competition in the global and domestic market and consumer's preference.
Various stakeholders, like producers, agriculture department, agriculture input suppliers, processors, cold chain operators and exporters, presented their issues and problems, which they are facing in the agribusiness. It was also suggested by most of the exporters that the quality standard needed drastic improvement, modifications, reduction in the cost of finished products, some concessions in the running of agribusiness, improvement in the delivery system of services in improved production technology to the farmers.
Exporters showed concern about quality control certification and implication of WTO regulations on export commodities. They requested the government to facilitate the stakeholders in most of the skills needed in smooth running of the horti business and also meet the international standards so that the cost of their products would compete in the world market.
In this connection the consultant and project implementation office Sindh will forward recommendations and documentation to the relevant quarters in due course when the consultative process with all stakeholders is completed. Various stakeholders involved in agribusiness highly appreciated the efforts being made by the present government in ameliorating horti-business in Sindh. The project implementation office would hold similar meetings on livestock and dairy development in the coming days.