ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) is determined to harvest avocadoes at commercial level in the country after successfully producing 12 suitable varieties of the fruit through grafting as per the climatic conditions of the region.
Talking to reporter on Thursday, program leader fruit crop, PARC told that number of crops were changing their places in Pakistan amid climate change and PARC was trying to replace these empty places with climate resilient crops, however, harvesting of avocadoes were part of this campaign.
“In 1994, Pakistan had only two varieties of avocadoes which have been converted into 12 modified species and some of these are providing more fruits than mother plants that will be soon available for commercial farming” he added.
He said plants of avocadoes were high in demand and PARC had produced 4000 to 5000 plants every year whose one plant was being sold at 350 rupees at PARC and its price would be come down once the mass production started at commercial level.
“Avocado is a new crop in Pakistan that provided fruits in 7 to 8 years, but after the successful research and grafting, PARC has lower down this transitional time frame from 3 to 4 years”, he expressed.
Talking about the adaptation of avocado crop, he said, avocado was a sub-tropical crop, but it had great adaptability in Pakistan from mild to high temperature as the PARC had successfully harvested avocadoes plants in Potohar region, South Punjab, Upper Balochistan and some areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Highlighting the nutrient importance of avocadoes Dr. Alam said avocadoes were full of Proteins, Riboflavin, Niacin and Vitamin C, 11 minerals that were rich in fat (monounsaturated), low starch and low sodium whose one plant could provide fruits up to 50 years.
Avocadoes had high export potential as it demanded low cultivation demand and high rate of commercial return.
Avocado also known as “Green Gold” due to its business worth of 12 billion dollars at the moment across the globe that is mostly cultivated in Mexico which produces 32 percent avocadoes of the world.