Japan helps farmers in Gilgit-Baltistan to reduce post-harvest losses

ISLAMABAD: Japanese government has helped horticulture farmers in Gilgit-Baltistan, earning nearly half of their livelihoods from fruits farming, to improve their income through curtailing post-harvest losses, its official said on Monday.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been working on a four-year pilot project for the “Promotion of Value-Added Fruit Products in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB)” since August 2012 in the targeted areas of Baltistan and Hunza-Nagar.
Total Rs465 million was allocated for the project in which Pakistan’s government share was Rs28.53 million.
“Prior to this project, around half of the farm produces got wasted,” said Amir Bukhari, Senior Program Officer at JICA told journalists in a press briefing arranged by the Japanese Embassy.
“After the introduction of good marketing techniques, value addition, packaging and branding, their products are now getting good price without any waste.”
Bukhari said earlier the production was low as well as farmers were getting low price for their produce, “now, they are getting much better price and their incomes have increased several folds.” Per capita income in the country’s most scenic northern area is lurking below $600, half of that in the country as a whole.
Apples, apricots, walnuts, grapes, dates, plums, cherry, peaches, blue berries, water and honey melon are grown in Gilgit-Baltistan, while people in the region don’t use fertilisers, pesticides and other technology and still prefer traditional farming.
Bukhari said most of the fruits are wasted due to difficult access to market and inefficiency in cultivation, processing technologies and marketing activities.
Under the JICA project, several local support organisations were set up and their members along with officials of the agriculture department of GB were trained in Pakistan, Japan and Turkey.
With the Japanese government’s technical and financial support, farmers were given training of how to make value addition to their organic fruits products through good packaging and better marketing techniques.
The JICA’s program officer said the agency is introducing better production, marketing, value addition and packaging techniques to farmers.
He said fruit and horticulture is the main strength of the GB economy, but it is suffering from the indifference of public sector organisations, though “we could earn billions of rupees through exports.”
An agriculture extension expert Dr Fazal Ur Rehman said GB is the hub of apricots in Pakistan with 65 varieties, “but due to unavailability of good marketing, packaging and value addition facilities almost 50 percent [of them] are wasted.”
“Unless the private sector comes forward the agriculture sector cannot be developed,” said Dr Rehman, who recently came back from Japan after training. .