
But things are not as simple as that. To take full advantage of the opening, Pakistan will have to spruce up its marketing and avoid the pitfalls its neighbour encountered. As a parliamentary secretary for Punjab aptly noted, improving farming standards and learning where India went wrong is critical to cashing in. Efforts towards this end appear to be already being made. Some 50 landowner-farmers gathered at a fruit farm near Multan recently to learn new methods of protecting mangoes from hazardous insects. The seriousness shown at learning the tricks of keeping the insects at bay is well worth it since the fruit fly hasn’t only affected India ‘but has threatened our orchards also’, according to a senior pest control official. His colleagues have been visiting farms and orchards to spread the word about the lucrative profits available if Pakistan can continue to meet EU standards. And those standards are vigorous, a fact which farmers must never lose sight of.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 20th, 2014.
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