Tuesday, May 6, 2008, Rabi-ul-Sani 29, 1429    

Implementation of futuristic agriculture policies stressed

Faisalabad—Former speaker National Asembly Syed Fakhar Imam stressing the need to fully capitalize the potential of agriculture sector said it is still contributing only 23 percent toward GDP inspite of its size and importance in national economy. He was addressing the inaugural session of second 2-day National Conference on Cotton Production at Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB) here Monday.

He said that Pakistan was also facing the global challenges of water scarcity and energy shortage.

“Due to the increased input cost, yield of cotton and wheat along with other crops has declined which is an eye opener for our planners and policy makers”, he said and urged upon the scientists to develop new high yielding varieties, which could be grown in water-starved conditions. Underlining the importance of cotton, Fakhar Imam that cotton has 62% share in our export while its share in foreign exchange earning was 11 billion dollar. He said that our industry was also based on cotton in addition to providing jobs to 40% population. Hence, scientists and government should collaborate to develop agriculture to cater to the future needs of our industry.

Dr. Qadir Bux Baluch Agriculture Commissioner Ministry of Food and Agriculture said that drought condition coupled with high concentration of salt have badly affected our cash crop of cotton. Attack of cotton leave curl virus and mealy bug have affected our yield and we failed to achieve the given targets. He said that federal government has launched a Rs.40 million project and in this connection farmers’ friendly predators are being imported from other countries to ensure biological control of mealy bug instead of importing poisons which were damaging environment. He said that Rs.360-380 million are also being doled out to the various research organizations across the country to check emerging diseases with a clear objective to increase cotton yield.

He said that scientists should not only evolve new technologies but also take measures to introduce these technologies at the farm level to increase farm yield. He said that ministry has planed to increase the area under cotton crop to 3.2 million hectare to harvest a bumper crop of 40 million bales this year. Dr. Ahsan-ul-Haq Director NIAB presenting addressing of welcome explained in details the achievements of NIAB in the enhancement of cotton production.—APP