Caretaker Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro said on Thursday that export of rice, which is one of the major sources of foreign exchange, has to be encouraged only after ensuring the local needs. He emphasised the need for proper monitoring of rice production and its distribution in order to determine the exact local needs as well as surplus which could be exported.
The Prime Minister was talking to a 19-member delegation of the Rice Export Association of Pakistan (Reap) which met him at the Prime Minister's Secretariat. The Prime Minister stressed the need for increasing the yield and improving the quality of rice to meet domestic needs as well as for enhancing exports.
He assured government's complete support to the growers, the millers, and exporters in their efforts to achieve the desired targets. Soomro laid special emphasis on research to improve the quality of seeds of various crops, including rice.
The research, he said, has to be conducted with the objective that both the yield and the crop quality improve to meet domestic and export requirements. The Prime Minister said that quality of seeds be improved in consultation with all stakeholders.
Collective wisdom supported by meaningful research, he said, would help to produce better quality of rice. The researchers have to show results and their immediate target should be to explore new variety of rice seeds, which consume less water and give more output like in some of the far-eastern countries, he added.
The Prime Minister also asked the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to explore possibilities of developing and procuring seeds suitable for Pakistani climate from foreign companies. He said this would help increase the yield and improve the quality of major agricultural crops, adding this aspect seems to be a fast track option to help resolve the issues confronting farm sector and related industries.
Soomro said that besides improving the quality of seeds there is a need to motivate the growers toward mechanised farming and harvesting. The process of mechanisation, he said, should involve local technology, which is equally good and much cheaper.
The Prime Minister said the whole chain of rice production, starting from sowing to harvesting, drying and husking and finally polishing to marketing, needs focused attention of all stakeholders. Initially, he said, the seeds have to be properly graded before sowing so as to procure quality yield.
This has to be followed by modernisation of rice and husking mills with use of better technology to reduce wastage and increase quality production. The Prime Minister said in order to meet the requirements of skilled and trained workers for the rice mills, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture may co-ordinate with Navtec and other concerned organisations to organise training courses.
He also asked the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) to organise workshops to train and educate workers as well as exporters in rice processing, marketing and export. Earlier the members of the Reap delegation apprised the Prime Minister of the problems relating to rice growers, millers and exporters.
They mentioned that while the rice export from Pakistan has increased by 135 percent in the last decade, the production has increased by 6 percent during the same period.
They asked for strengthening research efforts in order to increase per acre yield and also improve the quality according to local and international demand. The world market of rice, they said, is growing at the rate of 8 percent and Pakistan must benefit from this.
They said that Reap is confident of achieving the export target of $1.5 billion fixed for this year and would cross the target of $2.5 billion till 2010. The delegation appreciated the business-friendly policies of the government and expressed confidence it would continue to support the export-oriented industries of the country.
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