20000212

FAO grant for fruit, vegetable marketing

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations will provide $ 256,000 grant-in-aid to Pakistan for the development of fruits and vegetable marketing improvement project in the Northern Areas.

The agreement, under the Technical Cooperation Programme, was signed by FAO Director General Dr. Jacques Diouf and Minister for Food and Agriculture Dr. Shafqat Ali Jamote and Dr. Adel Mahmoud Aboul Naga, FAO Representative in Pakistan.

The northern areas are rich in fruits and vegetables production, but being inaccessible, extensive production is damaged because of poor marketing facilities.

The project will help raise the income of small scale fruit and vegetable producers through better marketing facilities for which an action plan would be formulated. The action plan will also help promote efficient marketing and suggest marketing infrastructure improve processing of fruits and vegetables and provide training for reducing post harvest losses.

FAO's earlier interventions in the Northern Areas in this field have led to the multiplication, dissemination and adoption of high grade and disease-free seed potatoes and vegetables seeds as well as improvement and upgrading of fruit trees among small farmers in the region.

As a result, production has increased and marketable surpluses have grown, but owing to the remoteness of the region, lack of road access to the farms and small local market, the farmers receive extremely poor prices.

Since the launching of the technical cooperation programme in 1976, FAO has implemented a total of 78 projects at a cost of $ 9.1 million.

In addition to assistance under the programme, FAO has also provided assistance of $ 108 million and implemented a total of 221 projects in the fields of agriculture, policy and planning, research, livestock, forestry and fisheries.