ISLAMABAD: ‘Drastic climate impacts and other demographic changes in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region call for building resilience of mountain communities and equipping them with smart technology and innovative solutions’.
This was stated by speakers during a two-day international conference titled ‘Mountain Specific Innovative solutions for potential scaling-up in Pakistan’ jointly organized by WWF-Pakistan, Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP), International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Pakistan Agriculture and Research Council (PARC) in Islamabad.
[…] Melad Ul Karim, Chief of Party Satpara Dam Project, AKRSP said that the organization initiated work in GB region in the early 1980s. It primarily focused on improving the living standards of the local people and so far has been successful on many fronts, especially in community organization and institutionalization. The program has improved income generation opportunities, increased literacy rate, enhanced skill development and community organizations at a local level. He also warned that flood damages to irrigation, infrastructure and farm land need to be addressed through joint efforts. He was of the view that CPEC presents many emerging economic opportunities for local communities and overall Pakistan.
Source: http://outpost.pk/national – Nov 3, 2017
Developing a climate-resilient value chain
Akhter is also among those farmers who have received trainings on climate-resilient value chain development of sea buckthorn, focusing on harvesting, processing, packing, marketing, and enterprise development. Organized by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in partnership withthe Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) under the European Union-funded Himalica pilot project, these trainings have been very useful to him.He admitted that he is now in a much better position to scale up his activities in more professional and systematic ways as he has come to know about the value chain approach—how to make a variety of products from seabuckthorn, and connect them to markets and customers.
Ismailimail 