The U.S.-Pakistan Partnership for Agricultural Market Development (AMD) is a USAID funded project which aims to improve the ability of Pakistan’s commercial agriculture and livestock sectors to compete in international and national markets in the four target product lines; meat, high value and off-season vegetables, mangoes and citrus. AMD will act as a catalyst for development and investment in target product lines by actively promoting cooperation and coordination amongst the value chain actors and ancillary service providers. AMD’s implementation strategy is underpinned by a strictly commercial and market driven approach with a clear focus on strengthening market access for its partner organizations, and support international marketing and sales efforts. The objective of the AMD project is to encourage investments in the four target product lines through matching grants and technical assistance, and empower stakeholders by developing synergies among them to accomplish together what they cannot do alone. AMD will support upgrading, streamline supply chains, provide technical assistance to optimize profit margins, increase participation of women entrepreneurs, and ultimately help make Pakistani meat, high value and off-season vegetables, mangoes and citrus become more profitable and competitive.
AMD Project proposed a focused training program specifically designed for women and connected to the proposed exporter embedded services activity, which will provide training in harvest practices and product handling to about 2,000 women. Female focused training programs will be implemented through private sector export partners at post-harvest centers, with the aim to train women workers with the requisite skills to be hired by the citrus industry and who can easily be cross-trained in additional crops such as mango and HV/OSV to create additional employment opportunities.
In light of this initiative, AMD Project plans to initiate a workforce skills development program focused on female participants around the citrus growing belt of Punjab