Seedlings bearing fruit for women in Pakistan

Women in Pakistan are seeing their seedling businesses bear fruit through MEDA’s Pathways & Pursestrings project.

MEDA partner Sarhad Rural Support Program recently hosted an exhibition featuring the work of some of the 1,200+ women now in the program. Local and national commercial nursery owners had the opportunity to meet with seedling producers, learn of their capabilities, and in exchange, share information about current market demands.

Nursery owners encouraged the women to scale up production to meet the needs of expanding markets and to diversify their varieties. Because they have adopted container seedling production, female seedling producers are in a good position to increase volumes and compete with field producers, who have limited land resources to expand.

In addition to learning the importance of diversity and using high-quality seeds, project participants also have received training in entrepreneurship and nursery management.

As both producers and nursery owners learn from each other, they are witnessing a strengthening of the whole seedling market system in Pakistan’s Haripur and Abbottabad districts.