My OperaAgribusiness in Northern Areas
Monday, June 9, 2008 5:55:19 AM
The Northern Areas of Pakistan is famous for its majestic high mountainous terrains, beautiful valleys, rich culture and tourist destinies. Its unique geographic and climatic condition also provides home some of best fruit produces like apricot, apple, grapes, peaches, walnuts and almond. Unfortunately, most of these produces are either wasted or sold in the market with very low price, due to several reasons. The construction of Karakurum Highway (KKH) linking this isolated mountain area to major markets like Pakistan and China, increased the potential of these produces for marketing.
The result of the survey conducted by NA Agriculture Department in 2007 shows that almost all farmers in the Northern Areas are having marketable surplus fruits. The number of bearing fruit tree in NA is around 3.5 million with a total annual production of 1,70,680 tons. Apricot alone has around 1.8 million trees with a production of more than 100,000 tons. Interestingly comparing this with international figures indicates that Pakistan stands the third largest Apricot producing country in the world. The production of other fruit found to be: apple 15,449; grapes 8,398; mulberry 16,556; peaches 4,449; pear 4,128; pomegranate 2,221; cherry 1,862; plum 710; almond 2001 and walnut 6,552 tons. District Skardu had maximum fruit production of 63525 tones followed by Gilgit 49,650; Ghanche 36,027; Diamer 11,635 and Ghizer 9843 tons. Due to increased investment in irrigation channels, by Government, AKRSP and NPIWE has increased the potential of fruit plants in the region. Another major advantage of the area is the organized community in allover the area in form of village and women organizations (V/WOs) and more formal cluster organizations of Local Support Organizations (LSOs)
Agri
The result of the survey conducted by NA Agriculture Department in 2007 shows that almost all farmers in the Northern Areas are having marketable surplus fruits. The number of bearing fruit tree in NA is around 3.5 million with a total annual production of 1,70,680 tons. Apricot alone has around 1.8 million trees with a production of more than 100,000 tons. Interestingly comparing this with international figures indicates that Pakistan stands the third largest Apricot producing country in the world. The production of other fruit found to be: apple 15,449; grapes 8,398; mulberry 16,556; peaches 4,449; pear 4,128; pomegranate 2,221; cherry 1,862; plum 710; almond 2001 and walnut 6,552 tons. District Skardu had maximum fruit production of 63525 tones followed by Gilgit 49,650; Ghanche 36,027; Diamer 11,635 and Ghizer 9843 tons. Due to increased investment in irrigation channels, by Government, AKRSP and NPIWE has increased the potential of fruit plants in the region. Another major advantage of the area is the organized community in allover the area in form of village and women organizations (V/WOs) and more formal cluster organizations of Local Support Organizations (LSOs)
Agri
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Edoes Humanus SarsimEdosaragih # Tuesday, February 10, 2009 11:00:43 PM
Arshad Aly SakhiAlySakhi # Wednesday, February 11, 2009 7:43:16 AM
There is very good potential of horticulture produce to export...But we have to work on the value addition and standardized customer appealing packaging to meet the international market requirement. There are some custom requirement .i.e. certifications of the produce etc. mostly the people/farmers are poor …social enterprises are being established by NGO/ Aga Khan Rural Support Program so individuals meet together unite themselves in order to meet the market demand and economy of scale.
as mostly fresh horticulture produce are highly perishable , and there is major constraints in transportation as well ..as population is scattered and lack of infrastructure etc
still there is very much potential to export the dry fruit to Europe etc.