Islamabad, February 25, 2022 (PPI-OT):Federal Minister of National Food Security Syed Fakhar Imam received a delegation headed by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on CPEC Affairs Mr. Khalid Mansoor on 25th February, 2022. Secretary National Food Security Mr. Tahir Khursheed and Senior Joint Secretary Mr. Javed Humayun also attended the meeting. Fakhar said that the two countries should enhance agricultural technological exchange. Imam stressed that Pakistan and China can immensely benefit from exchange in agriculture research and value-added technologies.
Minister said that agriculture is main focus of Pakistan for economic growth and food security. Therefore, the government is focusing on transforming agriculture sector on modern lines with strong science and technology basis. Similarly, mechanization and climate smart agriculture tools are the need of the day.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on CPEC Affairs Mr. Khalid Mansoor briefed Fakhar Imam on the progress regarding agreed areas of cooperation in the agriculture sector in the Joint Cooperation Committee and the respective Joint Working Group.
Mr. Khalid Mansoor briefed the minister about the eight areas of cooperation in CPEC with regard to agriculture which includes capacity building, germplasm resources, agricultural product processing, agricultural technology extension, fishery science and technology, aquaculture, and aquatic product processing, establishment of FMD free zones in Pakistan, market information and agricultural trade and cooperation for agricultural development under CPEC.
Minister continued and said that keeping the future challenges of population growth and climate change effects, there is a need to explore science-based solutions to secure to ensure food and nutritional security along with rich raw material supply to industry.
Fakhar said that the Republic of China is quite advance in agriculture science and technology with advance crop lines/hybrids, bio-technological tools, advance farm machinery and modern tools (precision agriculture, artificial intelligence etc) and thus Pakistan should benefit from their advancement through cooperation. Fakhar said that Pakistan faces a number of challenges but with the right policy interventions under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, agriculture sector can be transformed.
He said that Pakistani agriculture has 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 Imam praised the current government’s efforts and said that in the last 70 years the main set back to research was insufficient funds. This is the first time in the history of Pakistan that under Prime Minister Initiative Program billions of Rupees have been invested in agricultural research which has led to record production of wheat, maize and rice last year.
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