ACIAR's long-term focus in Pakistan is on natural resource management issues such as efficient water use, salinity and drainage, and tillage options for irrigated cereal cropping. ACIAR has broadened the program of bilateral and multilateral projects in Pakistan to encompass the horticulture and dairy sectors. The broadened focus arises from the Australia-Pakistan Agriculture Sector Linkages Program (ASLP), which ACIAR is implementing on behalf of AusAID.
The main goals of the agriculture linkages component are to:
- transfer Australian knowledge and expertise to key sectors of Pakistan agribusiness to increase profitability and enhance export potential
- contribute to poverty alleviation of smallholder farmers through collaborative research and development
- enhance the capacity of the Pakistan research, development and extension systems to deliver targeted and practical research outputs to agribusiness and farmers.
It has been agreed to target the following priorities for technical support:
- increasing mango and citrus production, through diagnosis and control of diseases and orchard management, to increase productivity and reduce input costs
- enhancing the supply chain, including value-adding and marketing, for the mango and citrus industries
- increasing milk production from individual animals in the dairy sector.
To meet the ASLP goals and ensure it delivers early impacts, the program comprises initial short-term scoping studies and constraints analysis; information exchange and exposure to agroenterprises through visits to Australia; technical and scientific workshops; tailored training and capacitybuilding and research and development projects. The main anticipated outcome of the ASLP is to build stronger capacity in Pakistan to exploit agribusiness opportunities in the targeted sectors, with the dual purposes of underpinning the current high growth rates in the agricultural sector and contributing to poverty reduction. The current phase of the ASLP runs until March 2010. Following a review in early 2009, an extension of the program through to March 2014 has been recommended.
