Australian Agri Experts For Long Term Project To Resolve Waterlogging , Alkali Flat Land Issues

A delegation of Australian agri experts met Secretary Agriculture South Punjab Saqib Ali Ateel at his office here on Tuesday

MULTAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 6th Sep, 2022 ) :A delegation of Australian agri experts met Secretary Agriculture South Punjab Saqib Ali Ateel at his office here on Tuesday.

The delegation included Dr. Neil Lazaro and Dr. Michael Mitchell.

Directors Agriculture Dr. Sagheer Ahmed, Dr. Ghulam Abbas, Abdul Ghaffar Grewal, Shahzad Sabir and Dr. Irfan Baig from MNSUA and others were also present during the meeting.

Agricultural issues including prevention of pollution of agricultural lands and their better use, innovation in agriculture and increase in crops production were discussed in the meeting.

Secretary Agriculture South Punjab Saqib Ali Atil said that about 1.62 million acres of land in Pakistan was affected by water logging and salinity.

He informed that soil salinity is a big challenge and a coordinate strategy was needed to guide the farmers for overcoming the issue.

In South Punjab, 10 million people were engaged in the agriculture sector he said, and added that the soil was sandy and stony for which several practical measures were being taken to improve it for better production.

"Due to hot and dry climate most of our soils have organic matter content of only three to six percent," the secretary explained.

Mr Ateel maintained that the country's food security was the first priority, while the cultivation and export of high value crops can earn a lot of foreign exchange.

Olive cultivation is being promoted on an area of 4,000 acres in Cholistan and Koh-i- Suleman while fish and shrimp farming is also being done in Kalrathi lands.

He said that IPM methods were being implemented to increase crop production and control production costs.

On this occasion, Australian experts said that they wanted to start a long-term project for the improvement of waterlogged Alkali flat land in Pakistan, on which Secretary Agriculture South Punjab Saqib Ali Attil assured them of full support.

He directed Director Mango Research Institute Abdul Ghaffar Grewal and Director Agriculture Extension Shehzad Sabir to extend complete support and also nominated Director Agriculture Extension Multan as focal person for coordination.