In southern Punjab and northern Sindh, six model farms under the Pakistan-China Red Chili Contract Farming Project are harvesting a bumper crop, with an expected yield of 700 tons of dried chilies.
Crops in the six model farms, which span roughly 300 acres, began yielding fruit in May, according to Dai Bao, the agricultural project leader for China Machinery Engineering Corporation in Pakistan.
The planting area has grown sixfold in comparison to the previous year, expanding from Lahore to other regions of Punjab and Sindh. “The total production climbed sevenfold, and the yield per unit area increased by more than 30%,” Dai told a reporter from CEN.
“When chillies are naturally dried, we’ll ship them to China for further processing,” he said.
This planting season, more than 200 local technicians were trained, and approximately 1,000 employments were generated.
They will establish downstream deep-processing industries and offer additional employment opportunities for communities in the future based on planting.
Agricultural exchanges and cooperation have become a focus for both China and Pakistan as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) have reached a stage of enrichment and growth since 2020.
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is intended to rapidly upgrade Pakistan’s required infrastructure and strengthen its economy by the construction of modern transportation networks, numerous energy projects, and special economic zones.
The Chinese embassy in Pakistan, Pakistan’s Ministry of National Food Security and Research, and enterprises from both countries, including CMEC, China, Sichuan Litong Food Group, China, Fatima Group, Pakistan, and others, collaborated to create the chili contract farming initiative.
The project is also designed to modernize the agriculture sector in Pakistan, including providing new seeds to enhance crop yield, providing skill development to farmers as well as boosting the export of agricultural products from Pakistan to other countries.
