'Country's Future Linked With Export Of High-valued Agri Commodities'

FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Aug, 2022 ) :The scientists should accelerate their research to develop new crop varieties as future of the country is linked with export of high-valued agriculture commodities especially fruits and vegetables.

This was stated by Additional Secretary Agriculture (Planning) Punjab Sheerin Naz while addressing a meeting at the Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI) here on Wednesday.

She said that Pakistan was an agrarian country and its agriculture sector was playing a pivotal role in strengthening national economy.

She urged the agri scientists to expedite their efforts and develop new crop varieties which should give the maximum yield even during harsh weather.

She said that climate changes also aggravated the situation for agriculture sector, therefore, scientists should introduce new techniques and convince farmers to adopt the latest technology to get a bumper yield of their corps because it would not only play a vital role in catering to national food requirements but also help growers to mitigate their financial sufferings.

Earlier, Chief Scientist AARI Malik Muhammad Nawaz Khan briefed the meeting and said the AARI had established a new nursery of date plants at its Jhang station for promoting date cultivation in Thal, Cholistan and low-rain areas of Punjab.

He said that AARI scientists grew saplings of eight varieties of date trees which had high market value in Pakistan whereas plants of seven date verities were also imported from middle east countries.

He said the AARI had also completed installation high-tunnel for research on vegetables so that high-yield varieties of ginger, tomato, cucumber, chilli, cabbage, cauliflower etc could be introduced for increasing vegetable production in the country.

Later, the additional secretary agriculture also visited high-tunnel area where vegetable expert Dr Muhammad Amir briefed and said the AARI scientists succeeded in growing disease-free plants of ginger and more than 2,000 ginger plantlets had also been distributed among farmers during last two years.

Director Headquarter & Principal Scientist Dr Sajidur Rehman, Dr Azizur Rehman, Dr Muhammad Javaid, Dr Muhammad Riaz, Malik Allah Bukhsh, Dr Qamar Shakeel, Section Officer Planning Muhammad Kashif, Assistant Director Agriculture Information Faisalabad Muhammad Ishaq Lashari and others were also present.