Pakistan professionals have received kiwi plants, seeds and hands-on-training from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) on kiwi fruit cultivation and nursery propagation. In Islamabad, training was held to establish a pilot kiwi orchard at theNational Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) per ongoing requests from the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC). In Chengdu, China, a kiwi propagation training was facilitated by ICIMOD for more Pakistan horticulturists 21 June -10 July 2015. ICIMOD’s capacity build up initiative triggered research-based piloting of kiwi by Horticulture Research Institute (HRI) enabling NARC to produce kiwi plants through grafting and cutting techniques.

NARC is assessing the potential of kiwi farming under various ecological conditions at three promising mountain locations: Barani Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Chakwal (Punjab province), National Tea and High Value Crops Research Institute (NTHRI), Shinkiari in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Mountain Agricultural Research Centre (MARC) at Juglote, Gilgit Baltistan. ICIMOD’s Pakistan office is working with PARC and other national partners to pilot kiwi in high altitudes of the Upper Indus Basin to alter existing low productive farming systems with kiwi as a high value livelihood option.

Share