ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Minister for Food Security and Research Dr Kausar Abdullah Malik called for removing all obstacles in agricultural development projects on priority basis to complete them within given time frame to harvest their full potential.

Chairing meeting he was briefed in detailed regarding measures taken to increase national average production of wheat, rice and sugarcane to achieve sustainable agriculture growth and economic development.

Chairman Pakistan Agriculture Research Council Dr Ghulam Muhammad Ali, Project Director Wheat Dr Muhammad Yaqub, Project Director Rice Dr Ashiq Rabbani and Dr Sagheer Ahmed National Coordinator were present in meeting. It was told that Prime Ministerial Agriculture Emergency Programme was launched in 2019 with cost of Rs 15.789 billion, adding that share of federal government was at Rs 3.750 billion, provincial governments Rs 7.56 billion while Rs 4.47 billion was farmer’s share.

Meeting was informed number of laboratories had been increased to control pest attacks on different crops with collaboration of private sectors, 58 types of sugarcane hybrids and lineages had been identified based on DNA sequencing. Besides, 35 trials of balanced sugarcane nutrition have been conducted as total production increase during project was recorded to 5.7 tonnes per hectare.

Published in The Daily National Courier, November, 03 2023

Like Business on Facebook, follow @DailyNCourier on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.