THE World Bank has extended the closing date of the Sindh Agricultural Growth Project (SAGP) to December 2020 from June 2019, after acknowledging the project`s overall progress in its midterm review carried out in November.I he review, conducted by the bank`s mission, has upgraded the project`s status to `moderately satisfactory` from `moderately unsatisfactory`.

The upgrade largely owes to progress achieved in the project`s agriculture component, which received $6.1 million between May and October 2017.

Moreover, $8m was approved for a competitive grant programme to strengthen project`s support to value chain activities and accelerate disbursement.

Sindh`s initiative to introduce its firstagriculture policy, a requirement under the SAGP, has been appreciated by the bank`s mission, said a project officer. The draft of the policy is being finalised in consultation with stakeholders.

The livestock sector, another major component of the SAGP, has also made significant progress, the World Bank noted.

The mission agreed to divert $5m from agriculture to the livestock component, whose share in total disbursements is now expected to increase from 36pc to 50pc by April. However, it wants the provincial government to speed up construction of milk collection centres and other related activities.

The $88.7m SAGP was approved in July 2014 but has yet to become a success story as a whole for farmers, as its focus has remained on procurement so far.

It included the distribution of drying mats for chillies, tarpaulin sheets and plastic crates for dates, threshers for paddy and sprayers for the onion crop.

The chilli sector has by and large benefitted under the project as the level of aflatoxin a cancer-causing toxin in dandi-cut red chillies has dropped considerably.

In addition to the SAGP`s intervention, the Pakistan Agriculture Coalition also introduced online trading to the country`s large chilli market in Kunri to help farmers sell their produce at better prices.

However, the onion sector`s performance is not up to the mark. Mahmood Nawaz Shah, the head of onion crop`s focal group formed under the World Bank`s project, says that sprayers to control diseases were given only in August 2017.

He said the project has huge potential if it is streamlined and managed in a proper way.

However, he added that distributing sprayers alone is not going to produce desired results. `We need to know what kind of seedtechnology makes onion crop competitive. Our onion can`t compete with that of India and Egypt,` he said.

The competitive grant programme being introduced in view of the latest midterm review will focus on value chain-related activities,hence it has a much wider coverage than the demand-driven innovative fund budgeted in the original design but was never implemented.

A total of 100 grants will be provided to farmer groups, small and medium agro-processing businesses and other players in the value chain.

A sum of Rs30m has been allocated for the first phase of research projects under a committee of the Sindh Agriculture University, Tando Jam, whereas the second phase is long awaited. The projects will take one to three years to complete.

Gada Hussain Mahesar and Qasim Jaskani, who head focal groups on rice and date crops, said their proposals have yet to be added in the revised PC-1, a project document which covers almost all aspects of the project.

Mr Mahesar said that apart from threshers, the paddy sector also needs combined harvesters to overcome the perennial moisture problem in crop.

Mr Jaskani argues that Sindh`s Aseel variety needs to be replaced, as it is no longer competitive on the international market where Morocco`s Medjool dates get a price of Rs4,000 per kilogram against Rs100 per kg for Aseel.

`We need new varieties and plants to compete in the world market. Even India, which is otherwise a big importer of dates from Sindh, has started cultivating the fruit,` he added.

Project director Hidayatullah Chhajro said the PC-1 is now being revised. He insisted that paddy growers got an attractive price of Rs900 per 40kg this year, mainly because of trainings given to hundreds of farmers about best cultivation practices.

He said growers` demands are many while the project mainly aims to focus on small and medium-sized growers to benefit them as compared to their bigger counterparts in Sindh. •hence it has a much wider coverage than the demand-driven innovative fund budgeted in the original design but was never implemented.

A total of 100 grants will be provided to farmer groups, small and medium agro-processing businesses and other players in the value chain.

A sum of Rs30m has been allocated for the first phase of research projects under a committee of the Sindh Agriculture University, Tando Jam, whereas the second phase is long awaited. The projects will take one to three years to complete.

Gada Hussain Mahesar and Qasim Jaskani, who head focal groups on rice and date crops, said their proposals have yet to be added in the revised PC-1, a project document which covers almost all aspects of the project.

Mr Mahesar said that apart from threshers, the paddy sector also needs combined harvesters to overcome the perennial moisture problem in crop.

Mr Jaskani argues that Sindh`s Aseel variety needs to be replaced, as it is no longer competitive on the international market where Morocco`s Medjool dates get a price of Rs4,000 per kilogram against Rs100 per kg for Aseel.

`We need new varieties and plants to compete in the world market. Even India, which is otherwise a big importer of dates from Sindh, has started cultivating the fruit,` he added.

Project director Hidayatullah Chhajro said the PC-1 is now being revised. He insisted that paddy growers got an attractive price of Rs900 per 40kg this year, mainly because of trainings given to hundreds of farmers about best cultivation practices.

He said growers` demands are many while the project mainly aims to focus on small and medium-sized growers to benefit them as compared to their bigger counterparts in Sindh. •