Islamabad, June 27, 2020 (PPI-OT): Outdated seed technology is the major reason for our low yield. This was said by Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research at National Assembly on Saturday. He was of the point of view that there is no doubt that we are an agro based country but we have not focused on it as we should have. Roughly 24 M hectare area is under cultivation of our total agriculture land. We are 10-15 lakh ton lagging behind than our need of wheat. Resultantly wheat will be imported. Private sector will import wheat. After 9-10 years, our wheat price is less than international wheat prices. Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan have almost achieved the targets. On the other hand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa could not meet the set target.
Most of the time Punjab provides wheat to KPK. Outdated seed technology is the major reason for our low yield. Our Seed Act and Plant Breeder Act have been constituted 2 to 3 years back and are still not being implemented properly. We are lagging behind in research than rest of the world which is a reason of our low output of cotton. Our universities, research department s should be groomed and advanced technology in agriculture should be promoted. Locust attack is quite big. FAO and DFID have provided us 20-micron sprayers which will be we very useful in tackling locust. Right now, there is only one supplier of micron sprayers.
The delay is due to on going COVID situation. Our ministry is constantly coordinating with NLCC, Pak Army and all other stakeholders. We are trying our best to combat locust in most effective way. China has provided us great assistance in tackling locust.5 helicopters of Pak army are working all the time for spraying pesticides. Right now, we have only 30 experts in DPP where our need is about 300 people.
We have set 37% of our total budget for fertilizers. Syed Fakhar Imam added that he has recommended to make a portal for the farmers where they can be registered. Federal Minister said that we need to improve our universities and research depts at the earliest is we want to compete the world. We will upgrade our research depts and will monitor and evaluate them from best international research departments in agriculture.
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