The Horticulture Advancement Activity (THAzA)
Request for Applications (RFA) # DFVPBW-KP-013/2021
In-Kind Grant Support for Dried Fruits & Vegetables Production Business for Women
‘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 (Kurram, North and South Waziristan and Orakzai). 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 female entrepreneurs in the KP-NMDs, for dried fruits & vegetable production business using modern technology and practices. FAO will directly procure and provide the grantee with a solar drying unit (tunnel structure) and hardware items for drying of fruits and vegetables, along with accessories, whereas the grantee will be required to bear the remaining activity cost including land acquisition, concrete floor construction and operational costs. Through this RFA FAO/THAzA invite applications from eligible female applicants, who:
- Own or has on lease, one kanal of land appropriate for the activity.
- Want to invest in establishing fruits & vegetable solar drying business in the selected districts of KP i.e. Kurram, North and South Waziristan and Orakzai.
- Have the agricultural / entrepreneurial capacity to successfully produce and market dried fruits & vegetables.
- Have the financial resources to cost share investments with FAO in their businesses.
Apart from this in-kind grant, FAO will also provide technical assistance and training on high quality dried fruits & vegetable production and facilitate/support grantees with the marketing of their produce.