Multan, Pakistan
May 14, 2009
Source:
Business Recorder via
Pakistan Biotechnology
Information Center (PABIC)
The Chairman,
Pakistan Agricultural Research
Council (PARC), Dr Zafar Altaf has said that Chinese
economy, specially its agriculture witnessed remarkable changes
over the past few decades due to the participation of its
people. Addressing a seminar on future of cotton marketing in
Kabirwala, he said that farmers should divert their attention
towards cultivation of edible oilseeds like Canola, Sun flower,
Soyabean etc.
He said PARC recommended that Germ Plasm of Hybrid BT colour
cotton and inter specific hybrids need to be acquired from China
and production technology of coloured and white cotton should be
tested on farmers' field at five sites selected by Chinese
experts at large scale.
The agriculture sector is likely to achieve its growth target of
3.3 percent for the current year. The crop sector is projected
to surpass the growth target, Dr Zafar said referring to a
report of PARC. He all livestock products witnessed an increase
in prices and thus the target of 3.2 percent could be achieved
adding that the demand for livestock products is growing at a
phenomenal pace.
Pakistan is producing about one third of its edible oil
requirements and the rest is met through import against billions
of rupees each year. Around 187.1 million tones of edible oil at
a cost of Rs 109 billion was imported during 2007-08, while oil
seeds costing Rs 28 billion were also imported during the same
period. Substantial amount of our valued foreign exchange is
spent on importing edible oil, which not only brings hardship to
the people but also burdens the national economy.
There is a need to find other means and ways to reduce the
import of edible oil bill including promotion of sunflower and
oilseed cultivation in the country. Dr Zafar said that the
government was spending on sunflower research and motivating the
farmers' community to make the country self-sufficient in edible
oil through increasing the cultivation of this crop.
Around 9,000 acres of land will be brought under sunflower
cultivation in Sialkot, Daska, Pasrur and Sambrial tehsils this
year. Further, sunflower, a non-traditional oilseed has the
potential to bridge the gap that exists between the domestic
demand and supply due to its high oil and protein contents, he
said.
PARC official said certain marketing and production methods
associated with this crop were being adopted to achieve the
desired results and at the same time area and production of
sunflower was being increased. He said sunflower seeds contain
about 42 percent of high quality edible oil and this crop is
grown on an area of 2,56,000 hectares in Pakistan with a
production of 3,59,000 tons sunflower seed and 1402 kg per
hectare yield.
But the production is low as compared to major sunflower growing
countries like China, United States and Argentina but our per
acre production is better than the developing countries, he said
and added, the crop duration is such that it can be sandwiched
between two cotton, rice or potato crops.
Therefore, it has a great potential to make the country self
sufficient in edible oil. Due to rapid increase in population,
the import of edible oil was increasing every year for
fulfilling the domestic requirements. Meanwhile, some growers
said that small farmers were hesitating to cultivate the
sunflower crop because of poor supporting price of their crop
and this area also needs immediate attention.
Further, he said, the agriculture has been facing acute
irrigation water shortages and the water intensive kharif crops
sugarcane and maize fell short of the target and depicted
negative growth of 18.5 percent and 7.5 percent in 2008-09.
However, other two major crops, cotton and rice have registered
positive growth of 7.3 percent and 13.5 percent, respectively.
The combined weight of sugarcane and maize in overall
agriculture is 6.2 percent, while that of cotton and rice is
13.0 percent.
The Rabi season started with estimated water shortages of 31.6
percent, however, widespread rainfall during December 2008 to
February 2009 in most parts of the country left positive impact
on the outlook for the rabi crop. In addition, fertiliser
off-take (both Urea and DAP) decreased by almost 6.5 percent
during July-March 2008-09 amid weak demand due to higher prices
and vague market signals led to shortages.
Disbursement of credit to agriculture sector by commercial and
specialised banks has increased by Rs 13.3 billion by 9.6
percent year-on-years to Rs 151.9 billion during nine months
(July-March) of the current fiscal year (2008-09) from Rs 138.6
billion of corresponding period of last fiscal year (2007-08),
he added.
According to him, A two member Chinese follow up mission headed
by Qiquan Zhang, Director General, Agri. Division, Xinjiang
Production and Corporation, reached Islamabad called on him and
discussed contents of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to
be implemented in Punjab and Sindh for growing BT Cotton.
According to the agreement, initially Chinese would grow BT
cotton on 800 acre of farmers' field.
Out of which 400 acre would be used by applying drip irrigation
method and 400 by applying sprinkler irrigation method. The PARC
would monitor all research activities being carried out through
joint venture for production of coloured and white cotton at
large scale, he added.
Later, the delegation was taken to agricultural research
institutes and cotton growing areas of Sindh and Punjab, where
the Chinese experts selected experimental sites and also held
meetings with the experts and scientists engaged in research and
development activities.
The Chinese experts follow up mission also met with Secretary,
Agriculture, Managing Director, Seed Corporation, Cotton
Botanist where they gave detailed briefing to the Chinese
mission. The mission also visited Sakrand and witnessed wheat
seed processing plant, but no proper facility for cotton was
available, as the cotton processing plant was out of order for
cotton ginning.
The scientists working at Central Cotton Research Institute
(CCRI) Multan apprised the mission that they started working on
coloured cotton in 1993 and developed colour shades in cotton
gene pool, he said. Dong Li Xia also gave presentation to
scientists at the CCRI and Ali Akbar Group about the status of
coloured cotton in China.
Director AZRI, Bahawalpur, Dr Rukhsana briefed the Chinese
mission about research activities of the institute particularly
Biofuel plants development in Pakistan. In Faisalabad, the
mission held a meeting with the Additional Secretary
Agriculture, Natiq Hussain, Chief PND and Dr Noor-ul-Islam,
Director Cotton AARI, where Chairman, PARC, Dr Zafar Altaf was
also present.
They discussed MoU signed by Punjab Government with China on
Agriculture. Dong Li Xia in his briefing gave a detailed
presentation on the subject and Salim Qureshi spoke on Status of
Cotton in Pakistan. Former Director, CCRI Multan, Dr Zahoor
Ahmed, Ehsan Akhtar, Akbar Ali, Khawar Ali, Faisal Imam, Mian
Khalid Khokhar, Mehmood Ahmed and Mehboob Ahmed also spoke to
the seminar. |
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