Islamabad, August 29, 2018 (PPI-OT): Senate Standing Committee on National Food Security in its meeting on Wednesday has asked the Ministry of National Food Security and Research to hold a brainstorming session with all relevant stakeholders and present before the committee way forward to bring international companies like Monsanto, Bayer and ICI to Pakistan for hybrid seed production technology after successful passage of Plant Breeders Rights Act.
The Committee meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Senator Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah here at the Parliament House and was attended among others by Senator Imamuddin Shouqeen, Dr. Ashok Kumar, Gul Bashra, Prof. Sajid Mir, Secretary National Food Security Fazal Abbas, Managing Director PASSCO Muhammad Khan, Dr. Munir Ahmed from PARC and other officials. The Committee expressed concern on continuous absence of Chairman PARC from the meetings and asked for provision of details of his frequency of visits abroad.
The Committee was told that the target for cotton seed sowing for 2018-19 in Punjab was 2.31 million hectares and the sowing was on area of 2.29 million hectares while in Sindh the sowing was on 0.42 million hectares against the target of 0.62 million hectares. The overall sowing area in Pakistan was told to be 2.71 million hectares against the target of 2.95 million hectares. The targets in Punjab saw a positive percentage increase of 11.5 percent and in Sindh a negative percentage of 31.0. The Committee decided to call Chairman IRSA to the next meeting to take update on water availability for the upcoming sowing season.
The Committee was also told in detail about the wheat exports statistics over the years. The allocation of wheat export for 2017-18 was termed to be 2,500,000 tons while the exported wheat amounted to 1,761,870 tons. The members sought details as to how much raw wheat is exported and what percentage of the export is in form of wheat products and also decided to give recommendations to the provincial governments regarding the same.
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