Climate resilient date varieties developed for desert, arid regions

KARACHI:

Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah speaking at the inaugural session of the First Pakistan International Date Palm Festival at the Expo Centre on Friday lauded the efforts of progressive farmers and traders who have gathered from across the country and abroad to showcase their expertise and products.

The CM underlined the significance of date palms as one of the most valuable cash crops globally, emphasising their nutritional and economic importance. He pointed out that Pakistan, with over 252,000 acres dedicated to date palm cultivation, produced more than 730,000 tonnes of dates in 2022, solidifying its status as a leading player in the global date market.

Despite this, Shah acknowledged the challenges Pakistan faces in maximising the value of its date production. While the country ranks fifth in production and third in export quantity, its international trade value remains lower than expected. To address this, he stressed the importance of introducing improved rain-tolerant, high-yielding varieties and modern post-harvest technologies.

He expressed pride in the province's leadership in date production, contributing over 57 per cent of the country's total output.

Poliovirus eradication top priority, says CM

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, during a meeting at the CM Secretariate, reviewed the ongoing efforts to eradicate polio virus from the province.

Minister for Health and Population Welfare, Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho; Minister Local Government, Saeed Ghani; Chief Secretary, Asif Hyder Shah; Coordinator of the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) Sindh, Irshad Ali Sodhar; health secretary; commissioners from across the province and other officials were present in the meeting.

Briefing the meeting on the current polio situation and the performance of the Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) programme, Irshad Ali Sodhar presented the progress achieved during the recent anti-polio drives, including the f-IPV campaign in August and the Sub-National Immunization Days (SNID) in September, which covered over 9.4 million children across the province.