Major agricultural aid program for Pakistan

Agriculture Sector Linkages Program

 Goal
To build linkages between the agricultural sectors of Australia and Pakistan. The ASLP has a a total budget of $AU6.6M over four years. It has four components:

1. Market Linkages
2. Academic Linkages
3. Agriculture
4. Linkages Program Review

Under an agreement with AusAID, ACIAR has agreed to manage and implement the third and fourth components. The main goals of the agriculture linkages component are:

1. To transfer Australian knowledge and expertise to key sectors of Pakistan agribusiness to increase profitability and enhance export potential
2. To contribute to poverty alleviation of smallholder farmers through collaborative research and development
3. To enhance the capacity of the Pakistan research, development and extension system to deliver targeted and practical research outputs to agribusiness and farmers.

The program will focus on the horticulture (mango and citrus) and livestock (dairy) enterprises, while at the same time addressing underlying issues of water management and institutional and technical capacity building. As part of the monitoring process, these priorities will be reviewed on an annual basis and other sectors (e.g. fisheries, vegetables) may be added once initial impacts have been achieved. Further details about the program may be viewed in the attached document.