English abstract
Globally, postharvest losses contribute to food shortages and ongoing food insecurity.
Food production is continued to be lost and wasted. Agricultural practices in most Middle
Eastern countries including Oman are not progressive in achieving food security and
sustainability due to the arid and semi-arid climatic conditions, poor productivity and
postharvest losses. Food loss and waste reduction efforts have received a lot of attention
because of the importance of enhancing productivity, food security and overall
sustainability. Value addition of agricultural products has a higher impact on productivity
by lowering waste and improving profit. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the
current status of agricultural production and productivities, value addition needs, and
quantify the technology transfer and capacity building needs for value addition leading to
productivity improvement in agriculture, and to investigate the value addition based
agritourism potentials for adoption in Oman.
Four agricultural products with potential for value addition were selected for the study;
date, banana, tomato, cucumber, and six governorates growing those crops were selected
for the study. Questionnaire surveys as primary data collection were distributed among
the stakeholders such as farms, value addition industries, relevant ministries and other
institutions to collect the required data about the current status and potentials for value
addition, technology transfer, capacity building, productivity improvement and on
agritourism. The crops selected in this study are all seasonal in which farmers and growers
face challenges such as postharvest handling losses, marketing, price variations, as well
as competition with imported products. Value addition of agricultural products can
improve the shelf life of the products for longer periods and sell during off seasons. Six
prominent date value-addition factories and a few tomato factories were visited for data
collection, while secondary data were collected on banana and cucumber as there were no
value addition factories available in the sultanate. The most value-added considered for
the study were; date with nuts, syrup, and paste of Khalas and Fardh date varieties under
date value-added products, banana chips, paste and juice under banana value-added
products, tomato ketchup, paste and juice under tomato value-added products and
cucumber pickle, paste and juice under cucumber value-added products. According to the
number of methods used in value-addition, four mechanization levels were categorized
on each value addition process. The productivity ratios were computed to determine the
productivity improvement by each value-added product from the raw product base values.
Protocols on value addition were developed as value addition guidelines and procedures
sheets, each sheet comprised 13 important features. These protocols are for the use of
farmers, growers, extension officers, planners, institutions and all stakeholders. The
potential agricultural sites, necessary activities and value-added products for promoting
agritourism were identified. The SWOT analysis on five categories was conducted in this
study on productivity improvement, value addition, technology transfer, capacity building
and agritourism.
The results showed several hindrances promoting value addition in Oman; only very few
Small and Medium Enterprise category farm landholdings could be found with large sizes
of 2-10 ha or more, only 4% each of date and tomato farms out of 72 and 25 farms, 2%
of banana farms out of 45 farms had some technology transfer and capacity building
activities conducted, while no such activities used for value addition by cucumber farms.
The technology transfer and capacity building are in the initial stage and need more efforts
and investments in order to promote value addition. In the case of productivity
improvement through value addition, date value-added products achieved the highest
productivity ratios (dates with nuts 540% in Khalas and 360% in Fardh). The potential
productivity improvement in other crops also showed highly positive results in
productivity ratios (value-added products with the highest ratios; banana chips 854%,
tomato ketchup 600% and cucumber paste 650%). Under protocol development for value
addition, 36 value addition guideline sheets were developed, 9 for each crop, and each
comprised 13 guideline features such as mechanization level, investment, technology
transfer and capacity building needs, possible productivity improvement and net profit.
According to agritourism, only 3%, 7%, 8% and 0% of 72 date farms, 45 banana farms,
25 tomato farms and 16 cucumber farms, respectively, were applying some form of
agritourism. Potential agritourism destinations and farm activities were identified and
potential income generation was computed. Five different SWOT matrices were
developed on value addition, technology transfer, capacity building, productivity
improvement, and agritourism. The SWOT analyses recognized the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats and hence strategies and steps required for
improvements under each category could be recommended.
The lack of SME-type farms with larger farm landholdings is one of the major weaknesses
hindering value addition industry. This required to be rectified and promoted among all
governorates to improve the value addition industry. The technology transfer and capacity
building required for value addition are also in their infancy state due to lack of supporting
program, financial support, institutional, public and private sector collaborations that need
more attention and support to improve. Value addition has the potential to improve land,
water and labor productivities significantly under arid conditions. The value addition
industry aligns with agritourism which can generate more farm income and benefit both
sectors; it need initiatives to make awareness programs for farmers and tourists and
develop farm visiting activities. The developed guidelines-procedure sheets will provide
decision-making support for farmers, producers, and extension officers and will improve
product quality, farm income, productivity, new jobs, and agricultural sustainability. Most
of the above recommendations align well with Oman's 20-year holistic development plan
of Oman Vision 2040.
