Sixteen agri-businesses from Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral have completed Smart Agri-Ventures, a sector specific programme aimed at strengthening their ability to improve productivity, reduce losses, access markets, and grow sustainably. The programme addressed a region where agricultural entrepreneurship faces distinct geographic and climatic challenges compared to more accessible agricultural areas of Pakistan.
Through a combination of practical learning, expert led sessions, and tailored advisory support, participating entrepreneurs strengthened their capacity across several areas, including high value crops to explore diversification opportunities and increase returns, and climate-smart agriculture and modern farming techniques to enhance productivity, efficiency, and resilience. Given Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral’s mountainous terrain and distinct climate conditions, these areas of focus reflect the specific agricultural realities entrepreneurs in the region must navigate.
The programme also covered post-harvest management and value addition, aimed at reducing losses, improving storage, and unlocking greater value from agricultural produce, alongside market development and financial readiness to strengthen business planning and growth strategies. This combination addresses both the production side of agricultural entrepreneurship and the commercial capabilities needed to actually monetise that production effectively.
As part of the programme, entrepreneurs applied the Green Business Assessment Tool framework to assess their businesses and identify opportunities to improve environmental sustainability, giving participants a structured method for evaluating their environmental impact alongside their commercial operations. Each business also received one-on-one advisory support tailored to its unique technical, operational, market, and financial needs, ensuring the guidance received was relevant to each venture’s specific circumstances rather than purely generic training.
While the in-person programme has concluded, participating businesses will continue to receive targeted advisory support, and high-potential ventures will be considered for Accelerate Prosperity’s patient-debt financing. This continued engagement reflects Accelerate Prosperity’s broader model of pairing structured training with longer term advisory relationships, giving businesses ongoing support as they work to apply what they learned during the programme to their actual operations in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral’s agricultural sector.
Follow the SPIN IDG WhatsApp Channel for updates across the Smart Pakistan Insights Network covering all of Pakistan’s technology ecosystem.
