ISLAMABAD – President Asif Ali Zardari has called for the adoption of modern farming techniques, saying that small farmers should be assisted in all possible manners to adopt the new technologies. During a briefing on food and agriculture held at President House, he stressed upon the need for agricultural scientists to boost research efforts in the production of high yielding, disease resistant and water conserving seeds of major crop groups, keeping in mind the soaring population, reduced water availability and deteriorating soil conditions.
“These are the challenges we need to overcome now to ensure security of our future generations”, he said. The briefing was attended by Minister for Food and Agriculture Mir Israrullah Zehri, former Agriculture Minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal, former Textiles Minister Rana Farooq Khan besides others. The meeting reviewed the progress made so far and briefed the president about the activities being undertaken in this regard.
The briefing was informed that currently PARC was focusing on developing hybrid seed of canola, cotton, wheat, sugarcane, aerobic rice cultivation, high bio-remediation of waste water, agriculture machinery development, alternate energy sources for agriculture, fertiliser, watershed management in dams being built, avian influenza and foot and mouth disease, epidemiology, genotyping, nutritional food security, value chain analysis and post harvest losses of guava, mangoes and citrus.
The briefing also informed that PARC has introduced a new indigenous hybrid cotton development program and has identified five superior hybrid combinations which have a potential of 20-30 percent increase in yield. Four tonnes of F1 hybrid seed of these five combinations have been produced which will be planted during this year in different environments of cotton and its results will be available at the end of this year. The future thrust in cotton research mainly focuses on development of hybrids, it informed.
The president emphasised that research was a basic pillar of agriculture development in the country and urged federal and provincial research institutions and universities to work towards the development and introduction of the latest technologies in agriculture and farming sector to enhance crop production on one hand and to adopt water conserving techniques, on the other, so that the growing challenge of food security in the country could be met.
The president said that cultivators who are able to produce maximum yields while adopting new technologies and agronomic practices need to be given incentives. Similarly, he noted that the researchers also need to encouraged and provided incentives. He called upon the private sector to step forward in this regard and own the policies and research centre for ensuring that the researchers are provided incentives and facilitated in their research matters.
APTMA Chairman Gohar Ejaz assured the president that APTMA would provide all possible support and assistance to the research centers and the researchers.
