Minister calls for switching to high-value crops
Two months after the monsoon’s end, women stand in a field of cotton destroyed by the subsequent flooding in Umerkot dis-trict. Hundreds of thousands of acres of standing crops were devastated across Sindh. PHOTO: ONLINE
The focus on agricultural economy has yielded positive results, however, the country must switch to high-value crops in order to secure a place in global food markets, said Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam.
During his visit to the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) on Saturday, he emphasised that the government was paying attention to science and technology. He highlighted that education and research played a vital role in increasing the per-acre yield of crops.
“This year, we harvested a bumper wheat crop that yielded 27.5 million tons while rice and maize production stood at 8.4 million tons each,” he revealed.
Lamenting the gradual decrease in cotton production, the minister said that one of the reasons behind the decline was cultivation of the crop on less area because farmers were not making a good profit from it.
The government has, however, fixed its support price at Rs5,000 per 40 kg to encourage the farmers to sow cotton, he added.
The minister said that the government was expecting production of 8.5 million bales of cotton in the ongoing year in Sindh and Punjab, and projected that the figure might be higher, which would give Pakistan an opportunity to export the surplus.
“The government is making serious efforts to enhance cotton yield because it contributes 60% to the country’s exports,” he said. However, the minister flagged seed shortage as a major concern.
“We need 1.1 million tons of seeds of different crops every year to sow over 22 million acres of land,” he said.
“Wheat cultivation will start after seven weeks and we have 530,000 tons of certified seeds, out of which, 160,000 tons have resistance against rust,” the minister said. “Pakistan is expected to harvest bumper crops next year.”
He informed the audience that Punjab, in collaboration with other provinces, was discussing a comprehensive strategy to transform the current agricultural system to high-value crops.
In order to improve the research quality to increase per-acre yield, the minister said that he visited research centres in Rahim Yar Khan, Sadiqabad, Lodhran and Vehari.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2021.
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