PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Monday signed agreements with private companies to set up cold storage and cardboard manufacturing units in Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan tribal district.

According to an official statement issued here, the cold storage and manufacturing units are being set up under the USAID-funded Horticulture Advancement Activity (THAzA) project implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in tribal districts and Balochistan.

It said that the project was designed to improve competitiveness of the potential horticultural value chains within the target regions and markets.

Under the agreement, local private investors Ali Mohammad and Pir Rahman will establish a 300-MT capacity cold storage and a packaging material production unit, respectively, and thus, boosting horticulture sector in tribal districts.

Govt signs agreements with private companies

Director-General of the KP Agriculture Research Dr Mohammad Abdur Rauf was also present on the agreement signing ceremony here.

He highlighted the importance of the horticulture sector for the region and hoped that climate-smart type targeted actions and promotion of the high-quality and high-value fruits and vegetables can become a game-changer for the region, which had the capacity to contribute to the enhanced food security, high incomes of the local producers and more jobs’ creation in the area.

Representative of FAO KP Mujibur Rahman said that the first-ever innovations, technological advancements and grants on cost-share basis would improve the overall situation within the targeted value chains and inspire local farmers to adopt the validated actions of cold store and packaging unit in the entire belt.

Director of the Planning and Development Research Fazal Wahab also shed light on some of the key aspects of the apple, apricot, grapes, and tomato value chains and emphasised the need for introducing small-scale innovative processing units, in the area to check the excessive wastage of certain fruits and vegetables during the peak season.

The official statement read that THAzA supported, through in-kind matching grant’s assistance of Rs17.85 million, the establishment of a cold storage aimed at addressing the major constraints that were becoming impediments in the trading of fresh horticultural produce, which emanated due to a lack of proper post-harvest handling and storage facilities.

It added that a well-established cold chain infrastructure was vital for maintaining the quality and increasing shelf life of the fresh horticultural produce.

“With the establishment of this, farmers will be able to store their produce for longer and to avoid peak season glut in the markets and resultant low prices for producers.”

According to the statement, with another grant of Rs15.568 million, a corrugated cardboard cartons manufacturing unit will also be set up catering to the needs of horticultural produce (fruits and vegetables), cosmetics and pharmaceuticals industry for production of different types of packing material locally for the market-preferred best quality products.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2022