USAID & USDA: promoting horticulture

Earlier this month, BR Research attended the graduation ceremony of the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) six-year programme on sanitary and phytosanitary standards, which trained Pakistani officials and agri-business experts on international plant health standards (Read: "SPS & exports: USDA's training," published April 05, 2017). We asked the question, what is the USDA doing to identify export markets and create linkages between local and foreign buyers, as this was entirely absent from that particular programme. Subsequent interactions with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) since then have shed light on some export-focused programmes.

For starters, the USDA and USAID are separate government agencies. However, they collaborate on international work when USDA has specific scientific expertise that complements USAID's international development goals. In such cases, USAID allocates funding to USDA to implement programmes in different countries, including Pakistan. Thus, the promotion of exports and identification of markets, it seems, falls under the ambit of USAID and not USDA. The scientific training and assistance with regards to agriculture technology, seed, techniques, standards, etc. is the job of USDA.

With that said, there are indeed some USAID projects that are helping promote Pakistan's agriculture exports. The US-Pakistan Partnership for Agricultural Market Development is one such USAID project working with Pakistani growers, processors, and exporters to create a competitive agricultural sector and to give high-value products increased access to both export and domestic markets. The project has identified horticulture - specifically mangoes, citrus (kinnow), and vegetables - and livestock as having the greatest potential for growth. The initial growth potential forecasts show that the four product lines can generate as much as $447 million over the next six years.

This project is partly responsible for the Indonesian government revising their calendar of import quotas, allowing local exporters to send their produce to Indonesia throughout Pakistan's citrus-growing season. It also successfully sent trial shipments of vegetables, mangoes, and meat to Gulf countries and Singapore via sea using climate-controlled shipping containers and improved packaging, allowing exporters to save $1 per kg in freight charges while significantly extending the shelf life of the produce.

Such donor-funded programmes are helping Pakistan promote agriculture exports in product lines that have tremendous potential for growth. It remains to be seen what our government and its ministries will do to further promote Pakistani agriculture and its exports to new markets. With a horticulture policy currently in the works, it is heartening to see horticulture getting into the limelight, at a time that agriculture and exports are not doing too well.