PARC-SARC, MAJU organise ‘Food Safety and Quality of Rice Conference & Workshop’

KARACHI: The experts have termed the food safety and security a global issue with public health and international trade implications.

While addressing a Food Safety and Quality of Rice Conference & Workshop, the experts and scientists talked about various issues related to food safety and rice quality and said that developed countries have framed policies and regulations to ensure the food safety to the end users. Whereas, the developing nations are in the phase of transformation which is due to the emerging regulatory controls that face challenges of infrastructure, competency, legislation and management to address the issues efficiently, they added.

PARC Southern-zone Agricultural Research Centre organized two-day stakeholder conference cum training workshop on ‘Food Safety & Quality of Rice: Current Scenarios, Challenges and Prospects for Improvement’ in collaboration with Mohammad Ali Jinnah University (MAJU) in Karachi.

This event is conducted through the research project titled ‘Development of a System, Based on Preventive Approach to Address Food Safety Concerns in the Export of Pakistani Rice’ (ALP project/CS-410) being executed by Dr Saqib Arif, Project PI/PSO, Dr Qurratul Ain, Project Co-PI/SSO, Salman Khurshid, SO and other project team members of PARC-SARC, Karachi.

The conference was inaugurated by the welcoming notes by Dr Muhammad Meraj, Dean, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University (MAJU) and Prof Dr Zubair Sheikh, President MAJU, Karachi. The conference Chief Guest was Prof Dr Fateh Muhammad Marri, Vice Chancellor, Sindh Agriculture University (SAU), Tandojam. Vote of Thanks by Dr Zakir Hussain Dahri, Director General, PARC-SARC, Karachi.

The conference was addressed by the international and national experts including Dr Qasim Chaudhry Visiting Professor University of Chester/ Ex-Principal Scientist, UK’s FERA, UK. Dr Qasim discussed about ‘Pakistani rice in the international marketplace quality & safety issues and future challenges. Prof Dr Zabta Khan Shinwari, T.I.; S.I. Professor Emeritus Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad talked about ‘Drought tolerance to overcome toxicity and ensuring food safety of rice’. Dr Muhammad Yusuf, National Coordinator (Rice)/PD (Rice project), PARC, Islamabad shared his expertise for the Role of rice sector in Pakistan for national & global food security. Pakistan rice genetic resources diversity for grain quality potential was discussed by Dr Sadar Uddin Siddiqui, Ex-Member (PSD), PARC, Islamabad and Pakistan rice genetic resources – Diversity for grain quality potential by Dr Sadar Uddin Siddiqui, Ex-Member (PSD), PARC, Islamabad.

Dr Allah Ditta Abid, PPA&DG, Department of Plant Protection, MNFSR, GoP, and Muhammad Anwar Mianoor, Senior Vice Chairman, Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP), Karachi also graced the occasion.

Speakers said that the threats to the public health and exports have compounded over time despite the fact that agriculture is the main underpinning pillar of economy of a developing country like Pakistan.

They said that the agro-commodities like rice which is the second most significant export crop in Pakistan also being suffering from excessive levels of contaminants mainly aflatoxins and pesticide residues. As a result of violation of international standards for maintaining food safety concerns consignments of rice of Pakistan have been confiscated that has also been noticed in current year from EU, they added.

Rice is a staple food for almost half of the world’s population. Pakistan is amongst top five rice exporters and brings an average of 1.9 billion USD foreign exchange by exporting 4 million tons of rice every year. Unfortunately, Pakistan could not increase its share beyond 10 percent of the total world exports of rice.

They said that Pakistan carries a huge potential as it produces both aromatic and non-aromatic rice varieties with sufficient quantities to serve the local as well as international markets. Besides other factors, the difficulties in meeting requirements of international standards for maintaining food safety concerns are one of the major causes of stagnant rice exports.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022