21 Agri Labs Get ISO 17025 Accreditation: Says Secretary Agriculture

Muhammad Irfan Published July 31, 2020 | 05:20 PM

MULTAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 31st Jul, 2020 ) :Secretary Agriculture Punjab Wasif Khursheed said on Friday that ISO 17025 accreditation has got approved for twenty- one (21) laboratories of provincial agriculture department.

These laboratories were conducting tests on vegetables, fruits, other crops, water, soil, fertilizers and pesticides, he said in a statement.

ISO/IEC 17025 is a company level accreditation based on a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) titled "General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories".

Wasif Khursheed said that farmers, government and semi government organizations, importers and exporters, private seed and fertilizers companies can avail the facility after payment of fixed test fee.

He said that Punjab government was taking necessary steps to increase cultivation and production of traditional and non-traditional crops.

He said that farmers of Thal districts including Layyah, Bakhar and Mianwali were getting portable solar irrigation systems at subsidized price.

He said a sum of Rs 300 billion was being spent under Prime Minister's agriculture emergency programme to increase production of wheat, rice, sugarcane and oilseed crops besides other initiatives.

Khursheed said that a sum of Rs 3.68 billion was being spent to instal solar powered drip and sprinkler irrigation systems at a 50 per cent subsidized price to cover 20,000 acre area.

Loan disbursement worth Rs 49 billion among small farmers was being ensured in just one instalment instead of three to facilitate farmers.

He said, agriculture machinery and tools were also being provided at subsidized price to promote mechanized farming.

He said that farmers were being provided on-farm training with application of modern machinery. He said that global gap training sessions were being arranged for farming community to ensure that their agriculture products can penetrate the lucrative international markets.