HYDERABAD:Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) Tando Jam Vice Chancellor Dr Fateh Marri Thursday said economic crisis in Pakistan is increasing due to trade deficit.
Despite being agriculture country and self-sufficient in wheat and agriculture commodities, he said with wheat, cotton, pulses, sugar, edible oil, spices, dried fruits, milk, tea and others are being imported from abroad.
He said the quality of agricultural production should be brought in line with the global requirements so that the country could be moved towards right path of development.
According to university spokesman, the vice chancellor expressed these remarks while addressing the ceremony of distribution and training of pulses seeds and agricultural inputs to local farmers in joint collaboration of SAU and Australian Center for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR).
Dr Fateh Marri said the developed countries are constantly engaged in research to deal with food security, climate change issue, increase yields per acre and to save people from starvation. “While we are an agricultural country, we are forced to import agricultural and food items from abroad,” he said,
He informed that in the Financial Year 2021, the country’s trade deficit was US Dollar 31.1 billion with imports of US Dollar 56.505 billion. “If we improve our agricultural production with more research and produce according to world standards, we can reduce the import bill of many products including wheat, cotton, sugar, tomatoes, milk, pulses, spices, tea”, he added.
The vice chancellor said food imports during the last fiscal year were US Dollar 6.13 billion, including Rs1.9 billion US Dollar on edible oil and US Dollar 2.05 billion on other food products.
He said according to the data released by the Pakistan Statistics Department, the import of pulses alone has increased by 1.23 million tones.
He suggested that governments should invest in it and encourage research for agricultural development.
The Dean, Faculty of Crop Production Prof Dr Qamaruddin Chachar said the SAU would provide technical assistance to farmers in pulses cultivation.
Sindh Focal Person of Pulse Project in Pakistan and Chairman of Department of Agronomy Dr Aijaz Ahmed Soomro and Dr Muhammad Buriro also shared their views on the occasion.
Among others, Dr Aijaz Ali Khooharo, Dr Neaimatullah Leghari, Dr Jan Muhammad Marri, Prof Dr Muhammad Ismail Kumbhar, Dr Aijaz Soomro, Dr Qamaruddin Jogi, Dr Shaukat Ibrahim Abro, Director Finance Anil Kumar and Registrar Ghulam Mohiyuddin Qureshi also attended the ceremony.
Later, the vice chancellor distributed seeds, medicines and other essential items among the farmers while the farmers of different areas including Khesana Mori were also given training on cultivation and maintenance of pulses.