ISLAMABAD, July 13: The government with the financial support of Asian Development Bank (ADB) here on Thursday launched a $24million agribusiness support fund (ASF).

The fund would provide farmers with technical and managerial services on a grant basis to improve their productivity and competitiveness in horticulture, livestock, dairy production, processing and marketing.

AFS is not for profit under the project being executed by the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock (Minfal). This is public/private partnership primarily financed by the ADB. The fund will be based at Lahore and expects to commence grant funding by September this year.

“Improved agribusiness is essential to maintain and expand export markets for agricultural products. The ASF would certainly contribute to increased economic growth and rural employment,” said ADB country director, Peter Fedon, at the signing ceremony of the agreement.

He said the agreement was a part of ADB Agribusiness Development Project. The project focused on increased agricultural productivity and improved marketing for agriculture sector. The project would corporatise the agriculture sector and would also help formulate a national agribusiness policy and provincial horticulture policies to meet international agricultural product standards.

The project covers all the areas of the country with about 2,000 agro-enterprises in both the formal and informal sectors expected to benefit over the next five years. The fund is supposed to help increase access to agribusiness regulatory framework, upgrade testing and certification facilities for seeds, nurseries and crops and sustain and strengthen technical training.

As a result of technical assistance to be provided under the fund, some financial institutions are expected to develop dedicated agribusiness finance function. These could benefit an additional 10,000 agro-enterprises, including up to 12,500 farmer enterprises, by improving access to finance and providing significant jobs and income generating opportunities.

According to the ADB, agribusiness enterprises range from micro- scale village based operations to large-scale nationally recognised companies. Small and medium-scale enterprises in the informal sector employ an estimated 1.5 million people. As the smaller enterprises are labour-intensive and generally located in or close to rural areas, the potential for direct and indirect growth and job generation is much greater than for large farms.

Research in agriculture: The United States here on Thursday reiterated its pledge to use its Agricultural Linkages Programme (ALP) for agricultural development and poverty alleviation in Pakistan.

On the request of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), a meeting was organized at Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) here to discuss the operating procedures of the Agricultural Research Endowment Fund (AREF) being funded by USDA.

The meeting was presided over by PARC chairman, Dr M E Tusneem. Howard Anderson, Agriculture Attache, US Embassy Islamabad, heads and representatives of Pakistan Science Foundation, agriculture universities of Faisalabad and Peshawar, Pakistan Forest Institute, Peshawar, and economic consultants of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) also attended the meeting.

In his opening remarks Dr M E Tusneem said that the aim of the meeting was to share PARC experiences of success story and lessons learned during the course of implementing AREF in Pakistan. He said PARC being responsible for implementing the ALP ensured that due-diligence, transparency and financial prudence were maintained in all the research and development projects.

The PARC chairman lauded the role of USDA in providing continued support for ALP whose coverage was nationwide.

“The objective of the ALP is to promote and support agricultural research and development activities in accordance with Pakistan’s long term development goals and to promote long term scientific cooperation between Pakistan and the United States in agricultural sector,” he added.

Howard Anderson termed the ALP a very important programme, saying that USDA had been working years with PARC in successfully implementing the research and development activities in agriculture sector.

He expressed his delight on the positive role of PARC, especially its planning directorate that was engaged in AREF/ALP activities.

Later, Mirza Ghazanfar Baig, member (finance) and Shahida Jamil, executive director ALP gave detailed presentation on the financial, technical and administrative aspects of the research and development projects underway across the country.

They informed that in 1999 the governments of Pakistan and the United States had signed an agreement to create ALP to reap the mutual benefits of agricultural research through joint research projects and exchange of scientists.

The Pakistani government allowed PARC to establish AREF where all proceeds raised from the sale of US wheat shall be transferred. Fund received would be invested in government’s approved schemes/institutes. The income thus generated shall be used for ALP activities/projects in line with the Pakistan’s long-term research/development goals for the agriculture sector. The goals focus on food security, poverty alleviation and promoting broad based equitable and sustainable agriculture.