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News & Updates

Flood affected farmers of Swat Shangla and Kohistan were provided Rabi season Agriculture Inputs and tools.

Lasoona has distributed comprehensive agriculture inputs and tools packages among 2250 farmers in 7affected union councils of districts Swat, Shangla and Kohistan with the financial assistance of BMZ (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation of Germany) and Welthungerhilfe (Formerly German Agro Action.

LASOONA Completed Training of FSAs

LASOONA has completed training of 27 Female Sales Agents (FSAs) under its USAID funded Embellished Fabrics Value Chain Project.

LASOONA signed Project Agreement with Welthungerhilfe

LASOONA signed agreement with the Germany based organization: Welthungerhilfe (formerly known as German Agro Action) for the Project title :Sustainable Agricutture Rehabilitation to ensure Food Security & Disater Prevention in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa".

Early Livelihood Recovery Project completed

The project was a joint venture of Lasoona and Welthungerhilfe and co-financed by by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation (BMZ) with the overall goal “To restore livelihoods of the flood affected population on the pre flood situation”.

Overview of LASOONA Projects Under Implementation

Agribusiness Support Fund Project

Funding Agency: Ministry of Food, Agriculture & Livestock (MINFAL)- Govt. of Pkaistan through Agribusiness Support Fund (ASF) and co- financed by Asian Development Bank
District Swat, Dir (Lower) & Malakand Agency.

Project Background
Agribusiness Support Fund Project (ASFP) is a joint venture of LASOONA and Agribusiness Support Fund (ASF).
ASF is a “Not for Profit Company” registered under Section 42 of the Companies Ordinance. It was established by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture & Livestock (MINFAL) with the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the context of the Agribusiness Development and Diversification Project. The company is governed by a private-sector led, independent Board of Directors and is based in Lahore.

ASF provides grants to the farmers, farmers’ groups and horticultural related enterprises with demand-driven technical and managerial services on a matching grant basis to improve their productivity, competitiveness and creditworthiness to access financing for their enterprises. Access to effective Business Development Services (BDS) has proven, in many countries, to act as a catalyst to enhance enterprise productivity and profitability. In our country, technical, managerial, marketing, financial and legal advisory services are limited and, in the context of agribusiness, almost non-existent. Under this project, the task assigned to LASOONA is to form Farmer Enterprise Groups (FEGs) through ASFP, in horticultural crops at post-harvest level and facilitate them to avail ASF grants.

Project Period: Phase I: November 2006-December 2007
Phase II: March 2008- April 2009
Phase III: March 2010-Feb. 2011

Objectives of the project

The specific objectives of ASFP are;

To enable agribusiness enterprises to effectively utilize Business Development Services (BDS) to enhance productivity, product and market diversity, penetration and profitability, and
To enhance BDS providers’ capacity to reach agribusiness enterprises through the delivery of more varied and effective services.

Brief Description of the Project Components

1) Farmers’ Enterprise Groups (FEGs) Formation

LASOONA through ASFP (Phase I & II) has formed 120 FEGs in District Swat and Dir while an additional 120 FEGs will be formed in three districts (Swat, Dir & Malakand).

2) Human Resource Development of FEGs

a) Training Programs

For effective implementation and sustainability of project, necessary training of Farmers’ Groups would be carried out. These training programs would mostly be based on the TNA of Farmers’ Groups and would include the following:

Basic Management Skills
Picking and Harvesting
Grading
Packing
Transportation
Storage and warehousing
Shelf-life extension
Marketing and Entrepreneurship
Enterprise Development
WTO expert Related Issues
Financial Management/Record Keeping

Based on TNA, six (6) Training Programs will be conducted during the project period.

b) Exposure Visit(s)

Exposure visits will be organized for the groups, to introduce them to the modern concepts of horticulture, its available services and related industries. The activity will be conducted in last quarter of project.