Satpara Development Project

Through a competitive process AKRSP won an award of around 3 million USD of Economic Transformation Initiative, IFAD, to provide social mobilization services for larger agriculture infrastructure projects in three districts (Ghizer, Astore and Ghanche) and value chain interventions in nine districts of GB. The project has picked up despite issues of clarity in ETI value chain strategy.

The field offices are fully supporting ETI team and until now 30 initial social mobilization report prepared and shared with ETI, 12 irrigation projects started, 14 VPGs (seed potato) have been formed and seed potato has been provided, training manual on SM prepared and one SM training conducted another is in pipe line, draft social mobilization strategy prepared and shared with ETI for feedback, SMP guideline prepared and distributed among all SMP staff, all potential valleys and villages for ETI interventions have been identified through 6 stakeholders meetings in entire GB. Furthermore, draft MoU with AKU on ToT and IEC materials production on nutrition has been prepared and TOT will take place before the end of this month. Participatory wealth ranking followed by Poverty Score Card have been completed for 10 villages.

Funded by: USAID, Government of USA
Project Duration: 5 Years (March 2012-March 2017)
Geographic Focus: Skardu (command area of right and left bank canals of the Satpara Dam)

Goal:

To increase agricultural GDP growth by two-thirds (assuming a baseline annual growth rate of 3 per cent), increasing employment and reducing rural poverty by 20 per cent over the next 5 years in Satpara Development Project Area.

Objectives

To increase on-farm water use efficiency, agro-productivity and agro-marketing facilities within the command area of the Satpara Dam Irrigation Scheme in order to provide income generating and employment opportunities.

Key Targets

• Provide efficient irrigation to more than 15,000 acres of land benefiting 12,000 households in Skardu
• Organize farmers into 137 Water User’s Association for efficient management of newly developed irrigation system
• Enhance productivity of High-Value Horticulture and Dairy Products by training 700 producers/farmers
• Strengthen local market economy by creating 4850 jobs

Key Achievements

• 18 main channels and 150 tertiary channels completed.
• 130 water users associations and 40 Farmer enterprise groups have been formed.
• 175 passive solar greenhouses constructed and 50 dehydration units have been provided to awardees.
• 27 commercial fruit orchards, 12 vegetable farms have been establish.
• 06 mother fruit nurseries established and in year 2016 over 12 thousand certified fruit trees will be available for sale.
• 500 farmers trained in fruit processing skills. And One milk processing unit and one yogurt processing unit established
• Artificial insemination services have been established in partnership with private and public sector and over 3000 successful cases have been reported.