PESHAWAR: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has urged Khyber Pakhtunl(hwa government to set up processing units and modern cold storages under public-private partnership to talce advantage of the rich potential of horticulture and agriculture resources in the province.

FPCCI`s standing committee on horticulture and food exports chairman Ahmad Jawad in a statement here on Sunday said thathorticulture sectorhad a signiñcantexport potential, particularly off-season fruits and vegetables that had a high demand in certain regional markets. `There is a need to adopt latest technology for enhancing export of these high value products,` he added.

Mr Jawad said that Pakistan had certain geographical advantages and it was considered a backyard farm of the Central Asian States and the Middle East with remarkable potential for export of agriculture products.

He said that he had written a letter to the provincial agriculture minister to pay proper attention to improvement ofthe agriculture infrastructure and allocate sufficient funds in budget for the purpose but he did not respond to the suggestions.

Mr Jawad said that provincial government allocated only Rs8.63 billion for the development of agriculture sector in the budget for 2016-17.

`We have to understand that small landholdings have adversely impacted crop yields and productivity in the province. Small scale farmers do not have access to sufficient resources to participate in high value-added markets,` he said.

According to Jawad, the production process in the provinceis`supply-driveninstead of demand-oriented`.`Farmers with small holdings are unable to gain direct access to markets,` he said, adding farmers had to travel at least 10 miles to reach the nearest market.

Mr Jawad said that only 1.8 million hectares out of 2.96 million hectares of cultivable land in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were being used to grow crops. He said that diversification into horticulture and rural-based agriculture processing units offered promising avenues for increasing the income of rural households.