Agriculture Market Infrastructure Project (AMIP)
Introduction:
Donor: Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Duration: 2009-2018
Budget: USD 41 Million
Impact and Outcome: Increased agriculture growth
Outcome: Development of more efficient livestock and horticulture agribusinesses
Outputs:
- Establishment of modern slaughterhouses infrastructure
- Establishment of small-Scale horticulture processing facilities
These investments will address critical gaps affecting productivity, product quality, market access, and demand in domestic and regional markets. The AMIP project undertakes livestock and horticulture market infrastructure investments and provide support to improve the commercial operation of facilities including the adoption of improved postharvest technologies and marketing practices.
Five slaughterhouses are constructed in four provinces; two in Kabul, one in Kunduz, one in Balkh, and one in Herat. Farm Level Collection Centers are established near the production areas in each of the seven agro-ecological zones of Afghanistan.
Equipment and technical support will be provided to the horticulture products testing and certification laboratories.
Main Components:
- Slaughterhouses:
Five slaughterhouses are under construction; two in Kabul, one in Kunduz, one in Balkh and one in Herat. These slaughterhouses have the supporting facilities of livestock holding, management of by-products such as hides, skins and casings and wastes.
Locations for the slaughterhouses were selected based on survey results and criteria including livestock production and market demand, technical factors including environmental parameters and site availability, financial and economic viability and institutional and operational sustainability.
The slaughterhouses are constructed based on modular design on the Government or Ministry of Agriculture owned land. However, the future operation and management will be undertaken by the private sector based on a public-private-partnership model.
Each slaughterhouse has the capacity to slaughter 500 small and 100 large ruminants in a single working shift of eight hours. Each slaughterhouse is established on a 25 Jerib or 50,000 square meter land. The aim is to improve the quality of meat and by-products, and provide a framework for developing enterprises to add value to products. Each slaughterhouse will have the following key facilities:
- Pre-inspection area
- Animal holding area before slaughtering
- Separate processing lines for sheep and goat and for large ruminants
- Areas for storing by-products such as intestine and skin
- Large cold storage
- Meat testing lab; quarantine and incinerator
- Administration building with all necessary facilities for the personnel
- Refrigerated and livestock transportation truck
- Roads, parking lot, waste water treatment system, power generator and first aid room
- Farm Level Collection Centers:
The project has established 19 small-scale Farm Level Collection Centers (FLCCs) in seven agro-ecological zones of the country including Kabul, Kandahar, Nangarhar, Balkh, Kunduz, Herat and Paktia. The FLCCs are of three types; type A, type B, and type C.
Type A and B is built on 1500 square meter land owned by the government or Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock. While type C is built on 500 square meter land. The FLCCs include the following facilities:
- Packing House: includes commodity receiving area, cleaning, drying, grading, sorting and packing areas based on national and international hygienic and health regulations with a capacity of 7 MT per day
- Solar Tunnel Dryer: fresh fruits are converted (dried) in close cabinets by the sun light faster than open-sun drying which also retains the product nutrient value with a drying capacity of 0.25 MT per three days
- Bio-climatic Storage: space for storage of processed and packed commodities with a capacity of 50 MT
- Other Facilities: Administration office, guard room, water reservoir, septic tank, waste-water-treatment plant, solar energy panels and storage and back-up generator
Upon the operation of the FLCCs, considerable improvement will be made for standardizing the horticulture commodities through processing and packing, which in turn, reduces the horticulture post-harvest losses. These facilities will also contribute in increased export of the horticulture commodities and will have increased income generating impacts.
The project experts will provide trainings on the operation and management, and marketing aspects of the centers. Furthermore, the project will also establish links between the producers and the commodities traders.
- Product Standard Development:
Under this component of the project, nine standards are developed for horticultural products safety and grades consistent with Codex Alimentarius. Standardized horticulture products testing and certification will facilitate utilization of products in domestic market and will improve export. The following technical supports are provided:
- Facilitation and development of rules and regulations in accordance to application of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures of WTO agreement
- Support MAIL on horticulture commodities standards development consistent with Codex Alimentarius
- Need based instructions and trainings for the facilitation to gain the membership of WTO
Food standards for the following Value Chain commodities were reviewed and accepted by ANSA:
- Pomegranate
- Pistachios
- Almonds unshelled
- Almond shelled
- Fresh Apricot
- Dried Apricot
- Meatcuts (BigCuts)
- Meatcuts (Small Cuts)
- Halal standard
The above standards are reviewed by technical committee of ANSA and have been submitted to the Supreme Council. After their review all mentioned standards have been accepted as national standards.
This project is completed.