Farmer Connect Project, which is externally known as Rahbar, is the biggest CSR initiative in the history of Engro Fertilizers. Around 500,000 small to medium farmers in the wheat-rice growing areas will benefit from the project. The farmers in these areas face numerous challenges, of which the biggest are; lack of knowledge on input applications, out dated farming techniques and little access to new technology. Our project aims to address these issues through knowledge based interventions at every crop stage by the use of ICT based knowledge dissemination, soil testing for optimum input application, farmer field schools, and community mobilization.

The project also places a special emphasis on capacity building of women, who are directly involved in farm activities such as grain handling and seed cleaning and grading. Our training will help women in enhancing their family income, and livelihood. Since the roll out of the project pilot in Sheikhupura district, FaCP team has been working closely with farmers and equipping them with the knowledge base critical to their crop and in turn their livelihood. During the month of March the Farmer Connect team educated farmers on harvest and post-harvest ‘best crop management practices’. Team visited grower fields to assess the condition of crop and to answer farmer queries.

The new improved Rahbar Weather Advisory Service has also been well received by farmers. It has helped them a lot in optimizing their input application. We are further facilitating farmers by extending direct sale of fertilizer from Engro warehouses and paddy seed booking at dealer price for registered growers. In a short time, we have witnessed encouraging results and we hope to see further milestones in the years to come!