USAID trains SME farms on best practices

Plan envisages greater market access, higher yields for peach farms.

ISLAMABAD: The United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Firms Project has trained 449 small and medium enterprise peach farms (SMEs) in Swat under a $600,000 revitalisation programme to help strengthen this sector.

The programme aims to develop these SMEs and facilitate them in gaining access to greater revenues and market linkages and make overall infrastructure improvements to strengthen the sector. A statement issued by the agency said that Swat relies heavily on the horticulture sector with 67% of the total peaches produced in Pakistan coming from Swat. USAID’s assistance to the peach sector includes training, infrastructure, supplies, technical support, tools, and certifications for peach farm SMEs of Swat, under a cost sharing agreement. The 449 peach farm SMEs that signed agreements with USAID Firms project received pre- and post- harvest training as part of the capacity building component of this assistance.

Moreover, the tools and equipment provided by the agency will help ensure minimum damage to fruit during harvest, thereby reducing losses to the growers. Cluster leaders were appointed to ensure a smooth flow of operations with farm SMEs within their clusters and work with them to increase output. Together these interventions will help peach farm SMEs in adopting best management practices and peach farming techniques, attaining larger scale production, increasing yield, and tapping into competitive new markets.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2012.