Chitral farmers get solar dehydration plants

CHITRAL: A United States-sponsored organisation on Thursday provided 54 solar-powered dehydration plants to farmers in the fruit producing Mastuj subdivision of Chitral district to enable them to preserve, market and get fair price for their fresh fruit products.

A non-governmental organisation the Qambar and Shandur Area Development (Qasad), with the financial support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), provided the dehydration plants to the farmers.

Qasad Chairman Syed Saadat Jan said that a single plant can dry up to 3,240kg fruit at a time. He said the organisation has provided training to 150 women who dry up the fruit in these plants, pack and market the products to attract customers.

He said that 60-74 percent of the total fresh fruit products used to get wasted during the traditional fruit preserving method previously and the provision of the technology would help the farmers preserve maximum quantity of their products. Saadat Jan said that fruit like apricot, white mulberry, wild cherry, pear, apple and others could be processed in the plants.