KARACHI, Jan 14: Speakers at a consultative workshop observed that wastage in horticultural products can be reduced from 40 per cent to 10-5 per cent to save millions of rupees.

Several recommendations were made at the one-day workshop on “National Agribusiness policy” held here on Saturday under the Agribusiness Development Project financed by the Asian Development Bank.

Three groups of the participants from stakeholder discussed in detail various measures and constraints vis-a-vis the development of agribusiness in the field of horticulture, livestock and dairy.

The workshop recommendations included development of infrastructure requirements from road to laboratories in rural areas of Sindh, creating awareness of harvest and post-harvest techniques, market information about demand-oriented products, processing of surplus produce, incentives like tax relief, land and machinery provision on easy terms, etc.

The workshop further recommended shelf-life improvement techniques, facilities of cold storage with controlled atmosphere, simple loan procedures to avail facility of value addition, quality assurance laboratories, more private sector investment in agriculture sector and induction of international companies in joint venture or direct investment.

Among the other recommendations were more containers, cargo space and treatment plants, quality produce, high-yield varieties, better human resource development, mechanisation of farms, exploration of new markets, dehydration plant for dates, control of live stock disease, etc.

The morning session was chaired by Adviser on Livestock and Fisheries, Fakir Mohammed Jadam Mangrio. Secretary Agriculture Mohakkamuddin Qadri was also present.

A large number of experts, growers, traders and manufactures from the relevant fields and officials from the agriculture department attended the workshop.

The concluding session was presided over by Syed Qamar Zaman Shah, President of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture.

—APP