Wise selection of crops to revive agro-economy: experts

FAISALABAD: Close and productive working relationship between Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI), National Textile University (NTU) and National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetics Engineering (NIBGE) is imperative to re-organise the industrial sector on scientific lines.

Addressing the FCCI Standing Committee on Technical Training and Industry-Academia Linkages, NIBGE Director Dr Shahid Mansoor said that Faisalabad was predominantly an agro-industrial city.

“Textile is the mainstay of its economy and to face the future challenges, we must add value in the entire chain of the textile sector - from ginning to fashion garments,” he added. He said that the NIBGE had world-class laboratories where testing facilities were also available and the local exporters must avail these facilities.

The NIBGE is working on different crops, including rice. “It has evolved many new varieties of different crops which are high yielding and have the resistance against different diseases. Pakistan is currently importing edible oil whereas being an agriculture country, we could produce oilseeds locally to fulfill our domestic needs,” he added.

Dr Waheed Khan, principal scientific officer NIBGE, said that biotechnology could enhance the shelf life of our perishable items, including vegetables and fruits. “We have knowledge, skills and technology but the FCCI has to play its role to convince the concerned sectors to adopt these technologies to improve the quality of their exportable surplus.” He said that the NIBGE had invented many new products and technologies which should be commercialised to harvest its economical benefits.

Regarding the nanotechnology, he said that we could earn billions of dollars by introducing this emerging technology in the textile sector. Earlier, FCCI president Zia Alumdar Hussain said that Faisalabad was producing more than 50 per cent raw material for the entire domestic industry of Pakistan. He specifically mentioned four major crops of wheat, sugarcane, corn and cotton. “Our real issue is to enhance the per acre yield of these crops as we are lagging far behind in it. Despite being an agriculture country, we are importing pulses, cereals and edible oil whereas our focus is only on the wheat. The local seeds of rice can produce 30 to 35 maunds and through imported seeds, we could get yield up to 55 maunds per acre. Similarly, the local seed of corn has the potential to give the yield of only 30 maunds whereas we could get 60 maunds per acre yield through the imported seeds. Wrong selection of crops is our major problem. We could revive our economy by putting the agriculture on the right track,” he said.

“We have surplus wheat but we are spending three billion dollars on the import of edible oil. To exploit our domestic potential, we must bring more area under the corn cultivation instead of sowing sugarcane and wheat. Sugarcane has been cultivated in cotton belt which dwindled our cotton production from 14 million to 10 million bales. On the other side, the Indian cotton has jumped from 8 million to 30 million bales due to the use of imported seed of BT cotton,” he explained. The NIBGE should also introduce new and cost effective technologies for the treatment of industrial waste water.