HYDERABAD: Speakers have underscored the need for controlling post-harvest losses in mango production through modern technology and adopting high-density farming for the fruit.

They were speaking at a seminar on ‘Mango quality, production, opportunities and challenges’ organised by Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) Tandojam on Wednesday in collaboration with Sindh Abadgar Board, Sindh Agriculture Research Institute Tandojam and Sindh Enterprise Development Fund (SEDF).

SAU Vice Chancellor Dr Fateh Marri proposed for the establishment of ‘farmers’ markets’ in Sindh’s major cities to engage producers for sale of their produce. They should be provided seed money as a grant because they did not have finance for promoting business, he added.

He called for introducing technology for processing and marketing to capture market. He said the SAU would establish a clean mango nursery and encourage graduates to come up with business plans and engage them for mango processing, packing and grading and adapting with online marketing mechanism.

He said: “We lack in competition in the international market in terms of export quality for management, packing and grading skills.”

Sindh agriculture secretary Abdul Rahim Soomro said there was a gap in research which showed poor results in yield compared to other nations in terms of quality products.

He said agro-processing zones were established in 2000 in nine cities and now Sindh was struggling to revive them through public private partnership. Research institutes and SAU graduates should be engaged to meet need of certified seeds, he added.

SEDF chief executive officer Mehboobul Haq said there were agribusiness opportunities for farmers and his organization was planning to strengthen supply chain by setting up cold storage, transportation and distribution mechanism.

He offered farmers to establish value-addition plants on a small scale at farms to directly deal in fruits and other crops.

He said that compared to conventional storages, the SEDF adopted modern models to benefit farmers. There was no issue of financing for small-scale entrepreneurship and even commercial banks seemed reluctant to lend money to farmers, but they tended to promote agribusiness. He said there were other windows and platforms for growers to avail opportunities.

SAB vice president Mehmood Nawaz Shah suggested to have high-density crops and fruits. He said he established high-density mango orchards on four acre land because traditionally we plant 35-38 trees in an acre. But following high-density method 1,000 trees could be grown on same piece of land to have more yield.

Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) vice president Nabi Bux Sathio pressed the point of value addition in crops like onion, chilli, tomato and various fruits, including mango. “We can manage post-harvest losses through modern practices,” he said. He added “we invest in crops production and wait for 3-4 months to get returns thus we have to initiate value addition to earn without waiting for three or four months.

Former DG agriculture and grower Agha Zafarullah Durrani said educated persons should be hired as farm managers for post-harvest management so they may help them avoid losses. “We need to change traditional practice to avoid losses”, he said.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2021