Vegetables are a rich source of vitamins, carbohydrates, salts and proteins. With increased health awareness and changing dietary patterns, vegetables are becoming an integral part of the average household’s daily meals. In addition, the high population growth rate has also given rise to a high demand for vegetables. Increased health awareness, high population growth rate, changing dietary patterns of increasingly affluent middle class and the availability of packaging technology, has therefore generated a year round high demand for vegetables in the country in general and in major city centers in particular. However, due to the lack of commercial off-season farming, storage and processing facilities, the supply side of vegetables remains volatile and as a result, during the natural season, the markets remain flooded with the vegetables, irrespective of demand, substantially bringing down their prices. On the other hand, during the off season, there is only a limited supply of these vegetables available in the market at higher prices.

In the absence of storage infrastructure and processing facilities in Pakistan, off season farming is a viable option that can not only increase the farmer’s income but also ensure availability of fresh vegetables to the consumers throughout the year at affordable prices.

Recognizing the potential for off-season farming Agribusiness Support Fund (ASF) launched a project to provide support to small scale farmers in undertaking off-season farming establishing green houses. During the year 2007-08, ASF approved matching grant support for 360 farmers, represented by 36 Farmer Enterprise Groups (FEGs), for setting up green houses on a total area of 36 acres at Districts Nankana and Sheikhupura. Each FEG initially contributed an area of 1 acre each to carry out off-season production of vegetables in green houses. 

ASF support covered the entire value chain of commercial off-season farming to include: support in leasing land for farming; expenditure in setting up the infrastructure of green house; plant protection and input services; technical consultancy fee; packing material; and transportation of final product to whole sale market. All these green houses are owned and operated by the small scale farmers who also contributed their share of 50% equity towards the cost of the project. Cucumber, Chilies, Tomatoes, Sweet Pepper, Brinjal and Squashes are some of the popular vegetables of the region that can provide substantial return to farmers during the off season.