Zubair Qureshi
Islamabad
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director Julie Koenen has reiterated her resolve to support Pakistan’s agriculture and food sector particularly in the wake of coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. She expressed this desire in a meeting with Federal Minister for National Food Security & Research (NFSR) Syed Fakhar Imam.
The Minister informed the visiting delegation that Pakistan’s main agriculture crops were wheat, rice, maze, sugarcane and cotton.
Our production of cotton was good in 1980s but presently the production has declined, he said adding cotton contributes about 60pc of Pakistan export. There is need of value addition in cotton crop through which Pakistan would earn billions of dollars.
Moreover, the current government’s focus is on uplifting the seed quality and production of cotton crop by exchange of information and research with other cotton producing countries. We have the world’s best basmati rice but failed to exploit toward international marketing, he added.
