Chitrali women have vast economic opportunities: Report

Report Zahiruddin


CHITRAL: A study reveals that there are enormous opportunities for women entrepreneurship in the district but the cultural barriers and lack of skills restricted them to do business.
Lack of integration, capacity and business environment were also enumerated as the reasons in the report, conducted by the Regional Women Empowerment Project of the AKRSP.
The report notes the huge information gap between the producers and the market which has minimised bargaining power of the producers. Although, Chitral is rich in resources along with the availability of relevant local skills, but the under-development of natural resources management is the main cause of the situation.
It also counts the absence of all-weather road from Chitral to other parts of the country and high transportation cost is inhibiting factors in the existing supply chain network.
“Transaction cost automatically increases in Chitral as one has to deal with a large number of small producers not organised under a single platform,” the report adds. The women of Chitral suffer due to lack of capacity to have perception of the market dimensions due to their inefficiencies while they find themselves in the chains of social bonds.
Describing the other hindrances, the report mentions the existence of bulk traders who control the flow of market information and buy the products from the consumers at minimum possible prices.
The report suggests that capacity-building is needed in almost all the identified sectors like poultry farming, honeybee keeping, handicrafts and kitchen gardening by applying plastic film or greenhouse technology due to the intense climatic conditions.
It suggests that a highly functional support market should be established and for this, the involvement of private sector must be ensured. The report cites example of fresh fruit sub-sector in Chitral where the overall production of apple, apricot, pears and other fruits have been increased in the last ten years. But the growers are still dependent on down country traders to buy their products at their farm gates and take away the produce in their own packaging.
The report strongly recommends proper mechanism for the flow of market information to the local producers to save them from the exploitation of tycoon.