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Introduction
Agriculture Directorate has been actively working for the improvement of
agricultural productivity in FATA. The directorate is headed by a Director in
Peshawar while head of the department in each tribal area is an Assistant
Director, followed by an Agricultural Officer at tehsil level. The main
functions of department are dissemination of recommended agricultural practices,
training of farmers in improving agricultural production technology, reclamation
and development of culturable waste land, quality control and regulatory
measures for agriculture input/output. The agriculture department holds a key
role in increasing economic activities in the region.
Strengths and Opportunities in the Sector
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Focus of agriculture
extension services on key agricultural products having comparative advantage
and their value addition could create commercial thinking and practices among
the farmers;
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Focus of agriculture
research on problem oriented research work leads to producing innovative and
state of the art technologies for specific agricultural products;
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Lack of marketing
infrastructure is hindering good economic returns to the farmers particularly
on horticultural crops which have shorter shelf lives;
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Adoption of water
conservation and high efficiency irrigation systems can improve the existing
water conveyance efficiency.
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Improving coordination
among various relevant departments lead to improving planning to manage
precious natural resources;
Opportunities exist in
shift from subsistence agriculture towards market-oriented agriculture
especially in high value crops production areas and access to international
markets of central Asia and Afghanistan due to geographical proximit
Development Strategy
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Support the shift from
subsistence agriculture towards market oriented agriculture.
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Adopt pocket area approach
where the government in collaboration with farmers defines certain areas where
one specific crop with a comparative advantage will be promoted;
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Reclamation of cultural
wasteland for the benefit of poor families in the area;
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Increase the availability
and efficiency of water in a sustainable way in collaboration with irrigation
and water management sector.
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Increase
the income of farmers through access to quality agriculture inputs, financial
loans and markets for agricultural products.
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Institutional and human
resource development of governmental and non governmental service providers
and existing farm services centers.
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Maximization of soil
efficiency, minimization of farm inputs, improvement of quality of farm
products and minimization of post harvest losses through introduction of
environment friendly and adoptable research based technological packages.
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Improvement in the
agriculture data collection, compilation and analysis.
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