Bénéficiaires
3,750 women & young people
Période
01/11/2024 > 31/10/2027
Global budget
€ 870,000
Food security & livelihood
Funding
Programme details
This project aims to contribute to the development of climate resilient agriculture through women and youth cooperatives in the Gilgit-Baltistan regions of Pakistan. It aims to promote South-South cooperation between Nepal and Pakistan, and to strengthen and promote women- and youth-led agricultural cooperatives so that they can provide economic services tailored to their members.
It will directly target 3,750 women and youth farmers and indirectly benefit 18,750 members of farming households. The project will be implemented with the support of two organisations: Nepal Agriculture Cooperative Central Federation Ltd (NACCFL) and Agribusiness Support Fund (ASF).
While agriculture accounts for 23% of Pakistan’s gross domestic product and employs about 38% of the working population, Pakistan’s family farmers, especially women and youth, face a number of constraints that reduce their economic potential. They have limited access to quality inputs and technology, a lack of knowledge about climate-smart farming practices, insufficient market reach, and limited access to finance to change their practices. Climate change has also begun to affect smallholder agriculture, with frequent droughts and floods, particularly in Gilgit-Baltistan.
The GROW-Pak project aims to address these issues by supporting 15 cooperatives run by women and young people with a total of 3,750 members. The project will implement a range of activities:
- Workshops on value chains, training in resilient farming techniques, cooperative management, access to finance and business plan development are provided to farmers and cooperative representatives.
- A farmer-run satellite market will be established to market products by farmers themselves.
- Studies and surveys are carried out to understand problems, opportunities for innovation and improvement, market situation and impact assessment, gender in Pakistani agriculture, etc.
Agritourism in Gilgit-Baltistan will be developed in partnership with selected cooperatives to provide an additional source of income.
To facilitate cooperation between Nepal and Pakistan, NACCFL and ASF are organising trade fair visits so that cooperative and government representatives can benefit from each other’s experience.
