Observer Report
Islamabad
A delegation comprising of members from Farmer Associates of Pakistan (FAP) and Pakistan Agriculture Research council (PARC) recently visited China on the invitation of Embassy of China.
The delegation was headed by Afaq Tiwana, a prominent farmer and head of FAP. Other members of the delegation including Dr. M. Kamal Sheikh, Dr. Fayyaz Hussain and Dr. Amanullah from PARC, and Mr. Syed Afzal Haider, Mr. Ibadullah and Mr. Sirbuland Hoti from FAP.
The objective of the visit was to meet Policy Makers, Research Institutions, Teaching Institutes, Farmers’ Organizations and Business Entities of China and learn from their experience in ground breaking work in Agriculture. As it was observed the productivity of Pakistani farmer is at 50% that of farmers in China. Delegation participated in the workshop arranged by Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences under the ambit of CATAS-CIAT-Biodiversity collaboration. Later the delegation met in Hanan Province with Officials of Ministry of Science and Technology and exchanged views with Mr. Zhao Qinghui (Depty Director General) and both sides agreed for mutual cooperation in S&T. The Delegation later travelled to city of Sanya where they had a discussion session with Sanya Nanfan Institute of Science and Technology. A complete overview on Tropical Agriculture in China was presented with a willingness by the Chinese side to work with farmers and scientists in Pakistan on tropical fruits and vegetables and exchange of germplasm. Next stop was University of Science and Technology in the city of Changsha.
Several private sector companies were also presented and gave briefing on their successful projects and ideas as well as products and services they were working on. Later Delegation met with Vice president, Mr. Fangming Xie of Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co. Ltd, a leading Chinese seed company dealing in hybrid rice and corn.
