Pakistan looks for mechanical harvesting

Sesame exports to China rise 46% in first half of 2022

Pakistan’s sesame exports to China increased 46% in the first half of this year as agricultural cooperation between the two countries was growing.

A group of Chinese and Pakistani sesame scientists have selected and exchanged seeds for crop breeding, cooperation in sesame planting and harvesting is in the pipeline under the CPEC framework.

“Sesame seeds selected by Ayub Agriculture Research Institute (AARI) in Faisalabad will be tested in Hai Nan, China in November. Last month, researchers and farmers from Pakistan gave a detailed outlook of sesame industry during an online seminar hosted by China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) and AARI,” Xu Guizhen, Director of Sesame Research Office, Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Science, told China Economic Net (CEN).

“Our institute is confident about finding solutions to the breeding of new sesame varieties, research in cultivation technology and lab-to-market transformation for our ‘iron brother’.”

Sesame has a long planting history in Pakistan. The crop is not hard to grow, requires not much water and fertiliser, yet farmers seem to be hesitant about planting sesame. “The biggest difficulty is finding labourers. Harvesting and planting have to be done by hand here,” Chaudhary Abdul Razzaq, a Pakistani sesame farmer, told CEN.

“If farmers can’t find skillful labourers, matured sesame seeds will fall off. This year, almost all of my sesame seeds have fallen off.”

The Pakistani team was particularly interested in mechanical means to harvest sesame seeds, Xu revealed.

The article originally appeared on the China Economic Net

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2022.

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