Identification and Prioritization of Issues in Growing and Marketing Vegetables in Punjab Province of Pakistan
Identification and Prioritization of Issues in Growing and Marketing Vegetables in Punjab Province of Pakistan
Muhammad Raheel Faiz1, Ijaz Ashraf1, Haq Nawaz2, Muhammad Zubair3*, Muhammad Sajid Mahmood4, Sajid Hussain5 and Abdul Qadeer2
ABSTRACT
Vegetables are distinctively important to meet our daily food intake and provide immunity against various chronic diseases as they are rich source of minerals and vitamins. The annual vegetable production of Pakistan is about 10 million tons which adds almost $170 million in national economy. Unluckily, this production is far below than its required amount due to production, protection and marketing problems which are faced by the vegetable growers. Therefore, the present study was designed to identify and prioritize the production, protection and marketing problems faced by the vegetable growers for suggesting possible solutions. Faisalabad Sadar Tehsil was selected as a study area where the vegetables are intensively grown by the farmers. There were total 58 rural union councils in Faisalabad Sadar, out of which 6 were selected through simple random sampling. From each selected union council, one village was selected at random and from each selected village, 20 vegetable growers were selected randomly thus making a sample size of 120 respondents. A well-planned interview schedule was prepared for the collection of data from the selected respondents. The survey showed that major problems of the vegetable production were the labour shortage, high prices of fertilizers and chemicals. The protection problems identified were lack of storage facilities for surplus vegetables, fluctuation in market price of vegetables and transportation problems. This indicated that the government should launch small credit schemes and should provide better marketing facilities to the farmers to ensure the sustainable production of vegetables in this area.
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