Helping Pakistani farmers get a bigger bite of the apple

Overview

Results

The team

Related information

So what's the problem?

The Pakistani earthquake of October 2005 laid bare the instabilities and insecurities of the rural communities of north-east Pakistan. Tens of thousands of people were killed and millions of those who survived suffered losses to their homes and businesses. 60% of the buildings here collapsed and in some areas the infrastructure of basic amenities such as roads, water and electricity were completely wiped out.

Agriculture – most commonly in the form of subsistence farming – is by far the main source of income in these isolated and poverty stricken areas. It was quickly recognised that this sector needed to be made more robust. This would enable such communities to recover more quickly and independently, should a natural disaster like this strike again.

What is this project doing?

CABI is working with CNFA on a project in the earthquake areas to improve livelihoods and develop enterprise in the region. The main aims of this USDA (United States Agency for International Development) sponsored project are to improve farmer income by establishing stronger relationships between the farmer and market. It was clear that one of the key things that farmers in this area required was training, and this is where CABI comes in. CABI staff are highly experienced in putting together and running training programmes for farmers where they can learn good agricultural practices. Here, the training involved apple farmers in the district of Bagh. Bagh is located in the state of Azad Kashmir, very close to the earthquake’s epicentre.

The main aim of CABI’s training is to assess the current practices and introduce techniques that are affordable and environmentally conscious, resulting in higher yielding, healthy crops.

Results so far

35 farmers were selected to be trained up as trainers and their farms have been used to demonstrate the new techniques. One of the first steps was to investigate the ecosystem in the farmers' fields. This involved trapping and identifying insects and then screening for diseases and weeds that are known to harm crop production in the local area.

18 insect species were found to be commonly occurring. 12 of these were identified as pests, while the other six were categorised as beneficial insects – they are predators or parasites of the pests which damage the crops. The five main diseases of apples in the area were also identified – apple scab, powdery mildew, apple canker (or wood rot), sooty blotch and flyspeck, were all present.

The factors that influence why pest populations increase and decrease is difficult to determine but CABI scientists are continuing to look into this. In the meantime, the introduction of simple techniques saw some immediate improvements. Previously, farmers were using a combination of four or five insecticides and five or six fungicides on their fruit crops – these are expensive to use and had damaging effects on the environment and meant many of the beneficial insects were also killed.

New techniques that involved the use of much cheaper homemade pesticides and insect pest traps resulted in much lower incidences of pests such as codling moth, San Jose scale, aphids, lygus bugs and borers. These homemade concoctions are thought to be less harmful to the beneficial predators and parasites but reduced the occurrence of the damaging pests, diseases and weeds.

Workshops were also given on the day-to-day management of apple orchards. The advantages of pruning and soil nutrient management were demonstrated along with the need for crop sanitation during the growth, harvest and post-harvest storage of apples.

Farmers who have followed the training programme have so far been found to produce 52% more fruit, lessen production costs by 61% and receive an improved sale price of nearly 50%. These successes should help to lay the foundations for some much needed income, reinvestment and security within the community as a whole should the forces of nature strike again.

Project Executive