Kharipur: On a sultry afternoon, Abdul Karim sits under a makeshift shelter packing freshly picked strawberries grown in an adjacent field. He carefully weighs and grades the juicy red fruit spread out in front of him before packing the berries in small plastic and cardboard boxes.

Karim, who has tended the plants throughout their growing season, looks visibly pleased with the produce. "Cultivating strawberries is hard work," he said, pointing to a load lying in the sun ready for boxing, "but once they're off to see the world, it's all worth it."

Located in the southern province of Sindh, Kharipur is one of the top strawberry-producing locations in Pakistan. The region's climate is ideal for growing the berries, which hold tremendous income potential for local farmers.

Strawberries were introduced to the region in 2004 after disease ravaged the usual banana crop and have since remained its primary crop. But owing to out-of-date methods of cultivation and poor post-harvest management, Sindhi farmers have been unable to cultivate export-quality strawberries outside the country, and take advantage of a crop with a much higher earning potential than most fruits exported out of Pakistan. Strawberries are in demand around the world all year.

Sindh's subtropical, semi-arid climate affords its farmers the chance to harvest the berries off-season, which makes their prices yet more competitive in the multi-million dollar international strawberry market.

Aware of the strawberry's potential, the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF), a joint initiative of the Pakistani government and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), saw an opportunity to help farmers and boost the economic growth of the region with the production of such a marketable commodity.

A pilot program of the Sindh provincial government with technical support from USAID is working with several dozen farmers to modernize their agricultural production chain, and strengthen market linkages between small-scale farmers, large-scale food producers, and exporters to substantially increase agricultural incomes.

Demonstrations were given to local farmers on modern farming techniques like high-efficiency drip irrigation, as well as post-harvest handling such as proper cooling, storage and packaging of the fragile berries.

The program successfully introduced two new varieties of strawberries, the Festival and Sweet Charlie, which bear fruit earlier after planting and are available in January rather than March, making them highly attractive to export markets. The new varieties are also tolerant to heat and sell well internationally because of their firmness and size.

"They sold like hot cakes," said Khan Muhammad Ujjan, a local farmer in the area. "Now that we have adopted these new techniques, we hope to do even better next time."

The program yielded approximately 2,000 pounds in two and a half months in the peak season. After being grown and distributed locally, the berries were sent as samples to Dubai and Oman to establish export markets.