Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, The Honorable Federal Minister of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives visited PARC-National Tea and High Value Crops Research Institute (NTHRI) Shinkiari Mansehra on Thursday.
He was accompanied by Mr. Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Sardar Muhammad Yousuf, MPA Provincial Assembly KP and Dr. Akmal Siddiq, Advisor to Ministry of National Food Security and Research. Representatives of Provincial Forest and Agricultural Departments also participated in the meeting.
Chairman PARC Dr. Ghulam Muhammad Ali and Director PARC-NTHRI Shinkiari Dr. Abdul Waheed both together briefed the participants regarding the research and development initiatives for the promotion of tea in the potential growing areas of the country.
Talking to the media, the Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal emphasized the importance of local tea production as the Govt. is spending huge amount of bill i.e 0.50 billion dollars on the import of tea. He said that a comprehensive strategy will be devised encompassing all the necessary steps for tea commercialization i.e tea plantation, processing, value addition and marketing to make the tea production a successful enterprises.
