The Horticulture Advancement Activity (THAzA)

Request for Applications (RFA) # OPCF-BAL-017/2021

In-Kind Grant Support for On-Farm Packaging and Cooling Facilities in Balochistan

‘The Horticulture Advancement Activity’ (THAzA) is a 5-year project awarded by USAID and implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. THAzA focuses on selected horticultural value chains in Balochistan and in selected Newly Merged Districts (KP - NMDs) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The objectives of THAzA are to create jobs and generate income through increased productivity and quality, improved marketing and access to services and to promote investments in horticultural value chains.

To achieve these objectives, FAO intends to extend in-kind grant support to selected agribusiness entrepreneurs for the establishment of three on-farm pack houses including cooling facilities in Balochistan, offering modern machinery/equipment and implementing best practices. Through these awards, FAO will introduce solar-based reefer container cooling technology for storing of fresh fruits & vegetable in the region. FAO will directly procure and provide each grantee with a reefer-cooling container along with complete solar energy system and other useful tools / equipment, whereas a grantee will be required to bear the remaining activity cost like construction of packaging shed, generator and meeting other operational costs. Through this RFA, FAO invite applications from eligible applicants, who:

• Have an existing farm on at least 5 acres, owned by the applicant, with a minimum annual production of 40 tons of either grapes OR apricot & tomato.
• Own 2 kanal of extra land on his/her farm, for the proposed agri business facilities.
• Want to invest in establishing on-farm pack house business facility within one of the following selected districts of Balochistan i.e. Pishin, Killa Saifullah and Mastung.
• Have the agricultural / entrepreneurial capabilities to successfully run the business.
• Have the financial resources to invest in the proposed business, together with FAO.

Apart from this in-kind grant, FAO will also provide technical assistance and training in good post- harvest & packaging practices and facilitate/support grantees with marketing of their products.

For further details regarding this RFA, including the grants application form, interested applicants may either download the complete RFA from https://new.brightspyre.com/jobs/jid/39385 or obtain RFA copies from the FAO THAzA Provincial office in Quetta. For ease of access, RFA and grants application form will also be made available through the relevant District Agricultural Extension Offices.