FAISALABAD: Provincial Minister for Agriculture, Energy, Industries, Commerce, Investment and Skill Development SM Tanveer has said that sustainable agricultural development is the top priority of the government and an action plan committee will be constituted to identify causes of decrease in citrus exports.
Presiding over a meeting on citrus at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) here on Thursday, he said that citrus exports have decreased from 210 million dollars to 100 million dollars. Therefore, a citrus action plan committee is being constituted.
Vice Chancellor UAF Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan will lead the committee that would present recommendations in 20 days to address the citrus challenges, he added.
The minister further said that like citrus, development action plans would be devised for edible oil, soybean, wheat, rice and other commodities.
He said that prosperity and poverty alleviation is directly linked with agriculture sector. Therefore, the agriculture experts, academia, industry and policy makers should concentrate to make joint efforts to achieve food security in the country.
He said, “Although Pakistan is an agricultural country, yet we have to spend billions of rupees on import of edible oil every year.” Hence, the agriculture scientists should come up with viable solutions for this challenge.
He said, “Our agricultural institutions are making great efforts to meet agricultural needs of ever-growing population.”
He said that Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan had made research and recommendations in 1992 by keeping in view the problem of decline in citrus production, but the policy makers did not act upon it seriously. However, the present government is making all-out efforts to develop agriculture on scientific basis.
Provincial Minister for Housing and Development Syed Azfar Ali Nasir said that the progressive farmers are getting production of various crops manifolds as compared to the production obtained by the traditional farmers.
He said that latest technology is present but farmers are reluctant to adopt it due to various reasons. Hence the agriculture scientists should pay heed to this issue and present its viable solution on urgent basis.
He said that agricultural scientists should also bring out new crop varieties by keeping in view the changing climatic conditions.
Secretary Agriculture Punjab Iftikhar Ali Sahu said that the citrus committee would come up with recommendations in nursery development, introduction of new varieties, increase in production and protection of orchards from pest and disease attack.
He said that the Agriculture department and agricultural universities are making all possible efforts to solve the problems of agriculture and farmers in the country so that the dream of improving economic conditions can be met.
UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr. Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that seedless citrus is preferred worldwide and the University of California developed Kinnow in 1935.
He said that the UAF with the help of University of California introduced Kinnow in Pakistan. “However, with the passage of time, citrus productivity faced decline and we have to adopt the modern trends and to remove the bottleneck,” he added.
He said that establishment of certified seed nurseries is need of the hour to overcome citrus crisis.
He said that the UAF is taking steps to establish a horticulture park under China Economic Corridor (CPEC) with the cooperation of China, which will open new chapters for agricultural development.
He said that Pakistan has 22 million hectares of agriculture land, out of which 16 million hectares are in Punjab.
He said that in China, the cotton cultivation is completed in 120 days, while in Pakistan the duration of cotton cultivation is 8 months. “We have to use China’s experiences to promote high yield agriculture,” he added.
He said that maize-wheat mixed flour must be promoted to overcome the increasing malnutrition.
MNS Agriculture University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Asif Ali, heads from Agriculture department, University dean and directors also attended the meeting.