FAISALABAD City News

‘Per acre production very low as

compared to other countries’

From Our Correspondent

FAISALABAD: The country imports pulses worth billions of rupees that may be overcome by providing quality seeds, promoting pulses cultivation and increasing per acre production, said Pakistan Agricultural Research Council Chairman Dr Yusuf Zafar.

Addressing an international conference on sustainable agriculture arranged by the US-Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, here on Saturday, he said that the measures were being taken to increase pulses production as per domestic needs. He said that the country was having surplus major crops, including wheat, rice, corn and sugarcane, but per acre production was very low as compared to the rest of the world. He stressed the need to promote crop management technologies with the joint efforts of all stakeholders, including researchers, public and private sectors, government institutions and farmers. He said that the farmers were facing various challenges, including soil degradation, changing prices of inputs, lack of suitable agricultural machinery, imbalance use of fertiliser and burning of crop residues. He stressed the need to improve crop management to achieve better yields.

Speaking on the occasion, UAF Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that by the 2050, the country population would double. He said that it was a great challenge for the researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders to ensure food amid the situation of climate changes. He cautioned that agricultural land was squeezing and being converted into residential colonies. He said it was the time to work jointly for putting the deserted land into the agricultural productive land. He showed his concern that the farmers’ sons did not want to join the profession. He said that the Punjab government was devising a new agricultural policy meant for addressing woes of the farmers and making the sector self-sufficient and profitable. Former information minister Nisar Memon stressed the need for long-term research experiment under the climate change scenarios. He said that per capita water availability had drastically decreased. He called for promoting new water conservation methods and dams for the cause. National Assembly former speaker Dr Fakhar Imam said that the country was wasting huge quantity of water due to lack of reservoirs. He said that since the last many decades, we didn’t construct big dams. He said that per acre water availability had decreased manifolds. Dr Qamar-ur-Zaman from the Dalhousie University, Canada, said that there was the need to promote the precision agriculture to make the sector efficient. He said that Pakistan was blessed with the tremendous resources, but there was the need to tap it.