FINAL REPORT CRP 1.1: Dry Land Systems CRP Activity Title: Improving Water and Land Productivity in Rain fed Systems Using Community- based Water and Agronomic Management Approaches. Sub-Activity Title: Capacity building of women of farming community for value-addition to locally-produced fruits and vegetables 1 | P a g e Background Pakistan is an agriculture-based country where majority of the agricultural activities revolve around women, therefore the role of rural women cannot be underestimated or ignored in rural development. The value addition in the form of preservation and processing of agricultural produce has tremendous potential for providing employment and additional income to farm families in rural catchments. Important aspects for promotion of value addition of fruits and vegetables are lower income from sale of fresh commodities in the market, high post-harvest losses due to perishable nature, considerable potential to generate employment, diversify income and improve food security in Pakistan. Increasing production is one approach to improving farm incomes and food availability, but an additional strategy with considerable promise is to add value to agricultural produce. Improved post-harvest handling, processing and marketing achieves value added products and is perhaps the most viable means to reduce poverty and improve rural livelihoods. At initial level, value addition of locally-produced fruits and vegetables for livelihood can develop skills of the rural communities leading to commercialization in the long run as it requires proper certification. Many rural areas that are faced with a declining number of farm jobs consider the food processing sector as a source of potential income and employment growth. By adding value to farm products, this food processing sector is seen by some analysts as a key element for rural growth, as well as a way to enhance farm income and provide rural jobs. Most commonly, value-added products derived from fruit or vegetables are transformed into gourmet food items. Typical value-added products include jams, jellies, preserves, fruit sauces and spreads, pickles, preserved vegetables, tapenades, hot chili sauces, extra virgin appellation olive oils, herb-flavored olive oils and vinegars, and salsas. Trend is rapidly emerging globally to include training and other modes of capacity building in technology transfer models. Hence, the value addition training supported the ongoing initiatives and provided a synergistic effect for developing value chains for these commodities. The rural farming communities in Pothwar region of Pakistan are amongst the lowest income groups in the country. Therefore, promotion of value addition and processing through transfer of skills and knowledge by imparting hands-on training to rural women was considered an important frontier to improve the livelihood of the rural household at the project site in Pakistan. Objective Introduction on value-added products produced from locally-grown fruits and vegetables for longer shelf life, high incomes and nutritious diets Implementation Strategy • Identify locally-active NGOs willing to work with the project team • To build the capacity of 20 rural women from locally-active NGOs to produce value-added products from 2-3 fruits and vegetables those were available at a low price during that season • Develop recipes, tutorial videos and other teaching material for master trainers to use in conducting training with the local communities • Master trainers visit local villages to conduct training on value addition for 41 villages (10% of 410 villages in Chakwal area) 2 | P a g e With this strategy, 42 rural women members from locally-active NGOs were identified and trained to develop 6 value-added (VA) products namely, tomato ketchup and puree, lemon squash and pickle and orange squash and jam. Identification of local NGOs A consultation session involving scientists from BARI and ICARDA was held at ICARDA Country Office, Islamabad during March 2014, at the occasion of the visit of Dr. Vinay Nangia. National Rural Support Program (NRSP), a premier national NGO was identified as focal organization for project on account of its presence at grass-roots level. In pursuance, BARI held a number of meetings (Annex-1) with the program in-charge NRSP Chakwal Mr. Raja Munir Hussain. Dr. Abdul Majid, ICARDA Country Manger also actively participated in the meetings to make the project activity a success. NRSP welcomed the initiative and proposed that it would nominate 20 of its rural women members for value addition training at BARI. After getting trained, these master trainers would subsequently visit local villages and conduct training on value addition in 41 villages (for 410 rural women). In addition to NRSP, there are some other local NGOs with whom BARI has developed good linkages through Watershed Rehabilitation Project and who are active in certain specific areas. These organizations include Pothwar Organization for Development Advocacy (PODA) and SARBAN. It was considered appropriate to develop capacity of some of their women member, so that they subsequently impart similar trainings to rural women in their respective community organizations in Chakwal. Informal discussions with both the organization were quite useful and it was agreed that each nominated 3-4 members for the project activity. The consultations also helped to identify a local institution: FLC (Functional Literacy Centre) having 50 centers in Chakwal with 400 rural women as trainees. The organization is working in informal mode with 20 trainees (rural women) at each centre in rural remote locations. During meetings with their representatives, it was revealed that their prime focus was skill development of the illiterate rural women in addition to bringing improvement in their literacy level. These consultations led to inclusion of the some representatives (women teachers) of the organization for value addition training. It was agreed that after training, each would subsequently provide training to their enrolled rural women to develop VA products. In addition, CRP communities (participatory farmers) were also given due representation in the training so that they also learn new VA techniques and develop/promote value addition of their fruits and vegetables. The consultations also focused on identification of two fruits (lemon and orange) and one vegetable (tomato), which were locally available at low price during the season. The follow-up meetings and informal discussions led to holding of the training for two days at BARI from June 16-17, 2015. Products Focused 1. Lemon squash 2. Lemon pickle 3. Orange squash 4. Orange jam 5. Tomato ketchup 6. Tomato puree Training material produced 3 | P a g e • A training manual (copy attached) containing nutritional importance, recipe and methodology to prepare each VA product was developed in national language (Urdu) • A tutorial video was prepared wherein the stepwise methodology was elaborated • Panaflex banners Each trainee was provided with training material including copy of training manual, writing pad, pencil, copy of tutorial video in a folder. Event description The training event was split into two sessions each day. Day 1 comprised of inaugural and technical session. During the inaugural session, scientists from BARI Chakwal and ICARDA country office highlighted the importance of the VA activity for rural communities and introduced the VA products. 4 | P a g e It was emphasized that each trainee should avail this opportunity to develop her capacity to prepare VA products, so that the knowledge and skilled are subsequently transferred to other rural communities through them. A group photo was taken at the end of inaugural session. 5 | P a g e During the technical sessions, participants were demonstrated how to prepare VA products i.e. tomato ketchup, puree, lemon pickle and lemon squash. The training was organized in a spacious room so that each participant gets full opportunity to interact with the resource persons and learns stepwise procedure for each product. A question-answer session was organized at the end, wherein the queries of the participants were addressed. During the 2 nd day of the event, the participants learned to prepared orange jam and squash. 6 | P a g e 7 | P a g e In the concluding session, the participants were also consulted for developing their future training program at village level. Mr. Nasir, Unit in-charge NRSP also joined the session. Each participant was given opportunity to express her views. It was decided that each NGO will nominate one focal person who will develop subsequent training program schedule at village level and accordingly inform BARI about the schedule. Certificates were distributed to the participants who successfully completed two-day training program. The participants were given sufficient time to express their views about the training. The event was highly appreciated by the participants; it was emphasized that similar trainings should be regularly conducted to develop the capacity of rural women members for utilizing their locally- grown fruits and vegetables in best way possible for developing nutritious diets from themselves and their families. It would help the rural women achieve better social status in family on account of saving money by preparing VA products, which they usually purchase from market. It was also appreciated that the training enabled them to learn new techniques to prepare VA products from the fruits and vegetables which are locally