Federal Minister of National Food Security, Syed Fakhar Imam on Monday said Pakistan needed to benefit from the experience of European Union (EU) with respect to modernization of agriculture and upgradation of value addition in agricultural products.
While talking to Ambassador of European Union to Pakistan Ms Androulla Kaminara, who called on him here, he said Pakistan faces a number of challenges but with the right policy interventions in collaboration with EU, agriculture sector could be transformed.
He said EU has only 5.8 percent of the world’s population and yet they generate 18 percent of global GDP which stands at US $17 trillion in 2021.
An holistic approach is required to enhance the working conditions of the farmers, he commented.
Imam also welcomed the EU development program of US $250 million which primarily focuses on uplifting agriculture sector of Pakistan via programs aimed at but not limited to horticulture, water conservation and hydro power generation, livestock development and human resource development especially basic health facilities for women and children of the rural areas such as Tharparkar and Umerkot.
He added that agriculture had been tottering along the traditional agricultural techniques and it is time that we start to look ahead to the future in terms of modernization.
Fakhar said there were pertinent issue of quality of soil, quality and cost of input, choice of seeds etc that need to be focused on emergency basis. He said Pakistan was the 5th largest producer of milk but only seven percent of that was processed.
Minister said value addition was one of the primary issues that needed to be addressed in the agriculture sector. Fakhar Imam praised the current governments efforts and said in the last 70 years the main set back to research was insufficient funds.
