Punjab Agriculture Minister Arshad Khan Lodhi has said that dynamic development of agriculture sector is the need of hour to keep the country's economy moving forward and ensure food security for ever-increasing population, in addition to exploiting comparative advantages in export for earning foreign exchange.
He expressed these views while addressing a seminar under the auspices of Agriculture Department and P&D Department, Punjab, on "International Trade Requirements and Export Potential for Horticulture Sector under WTO Regime," at a local hotel on Saturday.Agriculture Secretary Fayyaz Bashir, Agriculture Marketing Secretary Chaudhry Azhar, Adviser on WTO Dr Atta-ur-Rehman, Agri Forum President Imbrahim Mughal, and high-ranking officers of the agriculture department, agri scientists and a larger number of farmers attended the seminar.
Lodhi said the agriculture sector is lifeline of country's economy as it contributes 24 percent to the GDP, employs around 48 percent labour force and earns 70 percent foreign exchange through export.
He called for carving a niche for the country in the huge global market of $80 billion. The Punjab minister said: "We produce 32 kinds of fruits in 13 million tonnes of fruits and vegetables valued around $2 billion, out of which, only half a million tonnes valuing $140 million is exported." He said the government is making sincere efforts to increase share in the global market of horticulture products and explore new markets for these products.
Lodhi said that due to the measures taken by the government, the Iranian market has been revived with 25,000 tonnes of Kinnos being exported this year. On the other, Russian market was also accessed this year and over 30,000 tonnes Kinnos were exported there. The overall export of Kinnows has been 200,000 tonnes in the current season year, which is a record.
The provincial minister said the government has announced the reduction in customs duty on horticulture and floriculture machinery to zero percent and on raw material from 25 to 5 percent.
He said the provincial government has launched a four-year fruit and vegetable development project for promotion of horticultural crops. This multinational project is related to all the areas concerned like research, production, post-harvest, grading, packing, and above all marketing in the wake of the WTO challenges and neck-to-neck international market competition.
The minister said this seminar would help a lot to improve the knowledge of the farmers and other stakeholders regarding the international trade requirements and potential of the horticulture sector in the face of WTO challenges. Lodhi said the provincial government would extend all sort of co-operation to help improve the production and export of the horticulture in Punjab.
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