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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). Phone contacts: 0092-0946-790937, 0092-945-824673 asfp@lasoona.org 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   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 will form 60 Farmers Enterprise Groups, 40 and 20 in district Swat and Dir respectively. During the first month (December 2006) of the project, physical targets for Farmers’ Enterprise groups’ formation have been identified and listed. The Fruits and Vegetable groups have been addressed separately and to provide maximum advantages from the project activities, each horticulture crop would be addressed in 3 to 5 month in advance from its harvest period. 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.