Vegetable Value Chains Pakistan

Inauguration of Participatory Farmer Training Sessions (PFTS) in Okara is graced with presence of SVVCP project manager, Mr. Asif. He told the importance of entrepreneurship in small farmer households. There are 120 farmers registered from two villages (Chak Fazal Shah and Chak 37-D) of Okara for PFTS. Trainers from the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Dr. Khurram Ziaf Dr. Shoib ur Rehman gave interactive lectures followed by group discussion on seedbed preparation and sowing methods of potato. Farmers feedback is appreciated and they are happy to be a part of SVVCP project.

SVVCP project teams from CABI, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, The department of Agriculture Extension and Mojaz Foundation have jointly started regular farmer training sessions at two villages of Muzaffargarh (Basti Hajiwah and Mauza Bali Janobi).
The capacity of the farmers previously registered in farmer groups of SVVCP is built on production,post harvest, marketing and value addition of tomato, chilies and onion to ultimately enhance their livelihood with major emphasize on woman and youth group of the farmers. Team leaders from implementing partners enthusiastically participated in inauguration farmer training sessions at both villages of Muzaffargarh. Training session in village accomplished with detailed discussions on the importance of soil testing followed by the field visit of UAF team for the collection and preservation of soil samples from the farmer fields for their tests of pH and nutrients.

SVVCP Community engagement team has completed farmer groups at Chak Fazal Shah 37D in Depalpur- Okara where four groups (2 male and 2 female) were formed to start regular farmer training sessions for Potato crop.

A workshop, entitled 'Developing Guidelines for Gender Sensitive Value Chains', has been held at CABI's Rawalpindi office to review community engagement in project sites, gender frameworks and to develop questionnaire/participatory rural appraisal tools to identify farmer needs.
Afterwards, the team conducted a field visit of district Muzaffargarh, Okara and Khairpur to meet with female agricultural officers from the Department of Agriculture Extension, social mobilizers from Mojaz Foundation (MF) and Women Agriculture Development Organization (WADO), focal persons of farmer community and newly registered vegetable growers in farmer groups for their regular training sessions.

SVVCP UAF team visited the project collaborators and vegetable supply chains in Sindh province. Team from UAF included Dr. Khurram Ziaf, Dr. Raheel Anwar, Dr. Mazhar Abbas, Dr. Muzammil Jahangir, Dr. Rehan Riaz, and Dr. Naveed Ur Rehman. The objective was to visit the selected community group and understand the production patterns and problems in chilies and tomato value chains.

SVVCP Social Science team member from CABI conducted meetings with farmer women groups in Hajiwah and Bali Janobi Muzaffargarh. The purpose of meeting was to developed a participatory approach for farmers training schedule. Registered women groups take part and discuss in detail that how the need of training at different stages of crops (Onion,Tomato, Chilies) will be helpful for them to enhance their livelihood.

SVVCP Production and Post harvest horticulture teams conducted one day workshop "Vegetable Value Chain Improvement" in UAF. Experts from different institutes and farmers takes part. The main objective of the workshop was to discuss and overview the current status and challenges of Onion and Potato crop in Pakistan.

SVVCP Social Science team leader Dr. Gomathy Palaniappan Conduct one day workshop in UAF for SVVCP teams from Production,Post-harvest, Marketing, Do.Agri Extensin Punjab, Social mobilizer teams from Mojaz Foundation and CABI. The response was really appreciable and feedback was meaningful to develop the strategies in implementation of SVVCP on principals of ACIAR.

SVVCP Social Science group Leader conducted one day workshop in ARS Sindh. Participants from Sindh partner organizations takes part. This workshop was conclusive about the ideas how to engage the community and makes a strategic framework analysis for collaboration/engagement.

SVVCP Social Science group leader Dr. Gomathy Palaniappan and her team from Pakistan visited the village Bali Janobi-Muzaffargarh conducted meetings with selected group for Farmer Training Sessions. Meeting was very fruitful as all the selected participants showed enthusiasm to participate in FTS. They discuss the issues in target vegetable production and marketing.

SVVCP Social science Group leader Dr. Gomathy Palaniappan along with social science team from NARC and CABI visited village Hajiwah Muzaffargarh. Conducted meetings with women farmer group selected for participation in FTS. The purpose of visit was to developed the social network analysis.

SVVCP Social Science group leader Dr. Gomathy Palaniappan conducted one day workshop for SVVCP Social mobilization teams on "Developing Guidelines for Gender Sensitive Value Chains" in CABI-Rawalpindi. The main objective of the workshop was Reviewing community engagement in project sites & reviewing gender framework, Developing questionnaire/PRA tools to identify farmer needs.