Agriculture experts underlined the need of educating farmers and making their incomes and welfare the main focus of planning to overcome the challenges faced by the agriculture sector of the country.
Speaking at the inaugural session of Agri-business Management Training, Chief Executive Officer, Pakistan Horticulture Development and export Board (PHDEB), Shamoon Sadiq said that there was a dire need to support institutional and infrastructure development to build an economic climate for farmers' investment.
"Agriculture is the back bone of our economy and agricultural development is central to all strategies for planned development," he remarked adding that progress in agriculture provides relief in the terms of meeting the demands of agricultural commodities. Speaking on the occasion, another agriculture expert, Razak Ahmed Malkana, briefed the participants about the project, its objectives and training activities.
It may be recalled that PHDEB has signed an MoU with the relevant authorities of these colleges, under which, these colleges will conduct agribusiness related courses for the entrepreneurs from their areas. The Board through the project will further support the colleges in strengthening the lab facilities and would provide finances to cover the costs of the training.
It is expected that under this project, 3600 entrepreneurs will be trained in subjects of agribusiness during the project life. This was the third course of the series designed for training the instructors of the commerce colleges. This program of training for the instructors of commerce colleges will be completed by February, 2009 and then the training for the beneficiaries will be held at these selected colleges.
Agribusiness Development and Diversification Project (ADDP) is a project of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Minfa) while PHDEB is an implementation partner in the project. The objectives of the project are to develop an environment, conducive for agribusiness through policy initiatives, capacity building of the entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in agribusiness supply chain and financial support to business through Agribusiness Support Fund (ASF).
Under capacity building component, the instructors from 20 commerce colleges will be trained in various areas of Agribusiness, like; supply chain management, export procedure, WTO regulations. These colleges have been selected from all over Pakistan, where the potential for horti-business development exists.