MULTAN:The use of low quality seed is the major cause of decline in production of pulses in the country as over Rs 110 billion are being spent annually to import the commodity despite the fact that Pakistan is an agricultural country.
Besides this, selection of marginal soil (less fertile, deserts), lack of mechanization, water shortage and poor marketing system are also some important factors that are damaging pulse sector. This was stated by an expert from Arid Zone Research Institute (AZRI) Bhakkar while talking to reporter here.
He informed that pulses are grown at an area of 3.2 million hectares in the country but the major area is less fertile.
The country faced shortage of 275,000 tonnes of chickpea, 66,000 tonnes moungbean, 166,000 tonnes mash, and 160,000 tonnes of lentil pulse annually. Pakistan used to import these pulses largely from Australia and Canada, the expert said.
About per acre production of pulses in the country, the expert informed that Pakistan was achieving 200 kg per acre while Australia was getting 1,400 kg. About the reason behind extremely low production, Dr Khalid observed that the country was faced with issue of seed quality.
The funding on research on pulses were meagre. He, however, hinted that Pakistan was spending huge amount of Rs 110 billion on import of pulses annually.
To a query about how production of pulses can be increased, he said, “We have to work on availability of quality seed, selection of fertile land and improvement in marketing system to invite farmers attention towards production of pulses.”