Agricultural Marketing Program (AMP) Apricot Drying

Roots of Peace looks for ways that farmers can improve their production methods and thereby increase their household incomes. During the apricot harvest season, when the domestic market is saturated, prices are at their lowest. Due to a lack of resources, cold storage facilities, and proper transportation, surplus apricots often spoil and go to waste.

To help farmers avoid these losses, AMP provides training in the technique of drying apricots using sulfur, thereby converting apricot harvests into high-value crops. Sulfur drying improves the shape, taste, and color of apricots, resulting in a higher market value. Farmers learned to sort, grade, and clean the apricots by arranging the apricots on wooden trays in a sulfur-drying hut.

The farmers fumigate the apricots with sulfur gas for four to six hours, then remove the trays and put them in the sunlight to dry for three days. After removing the seeds and treating the apricots with paraffin oil, the apricots are sun-dried until the fruits’ moisture has been reduced to 20 percent. The dried apricots are then ready to be packaged and sold.

Roots of Peace has trained thousands of farmers in the technology of apricot sulfur drying. In the last three months alone, 220 farmers from Zabul and Ghazni provinces graduated from the course.