PESHAWAR, Dec 30: A group of Pakistani officials associated with development of agriculture and dairy farm services recently returned from a four-week training tour to Australia where they studied pro-poor market development programmes.

Muqarrab Ali Khan, director breed improvement and farms services in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a participant of the programme, said in a press statement the other day that the visit provided the Pakistan team opportunities to share experiences with stakeholders of agribusiness, including the ministry of agriculture, management of Australia’s Official Development Assistance (ODA), teachers and research staff of UniQuest University, wholesale traders/retailers of fresh vegetables, meat and milk, management of agriculture market, inputs suppliers, vegetables growers and dairy farms, and research and extension services.

Twenty-two trainees from Pakistan, including 12 government officers, two academicians, four farmers and four officials of NGOs attended the course.

The training was arranged under the Australian-Pakistan Agriculture Scholarships (APAS) programme with the aim to build individual/institutional capacity in pro-poor market development in rural areas of Pakistan. The first such training was conducted from Nov 12 to Dec 7 at Queensland University, Brisbane.

During the course, the Pakistani team was exposed to the value chain approach from practical perspective, as it plays a key role in agribusiness development and linking farmers to their markets.

The programme was supervised by Prof Ray Collins and course director Ms Suzanne Brangwin of the UniQuest University, Queensland.

The APAS awardees have also developed a “return to work project” for implementation in their respective organisations. “The ongoing programme of Australian Technical Cooperation and Assistance in improvement of mango value chain in Punjab will have substantial impact on rural development in the country,” said Mr Khan.