Punjab Minister for Food, Syed Hussain Jahania Gardezi has said the government is concentrating on exploiting comparative advantage in exports for earning foreign exchange through diversification of agricultural production into high value crops.
Addressing a workshop on 'Management of WTO Food, Agriculture & Trade Challenges', organised jointly by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Agriculture Department, the minister said that agriculture sector was necessary to keep the economy moving.
He said that major advances in technology and the emergence of new players on the global scene underscored the need to initiate dialogue on WTO, with reference to the standards impacting Pakistan's trade opportunities.
The developing countries, particularly those with agro-based economies like Pakistan were facing troubles to cope with the challenge of conforming to the standards of developed countries to which they intended to export goods, he added.
He said the infrastructure, including laboratories, accreditation and certification bodies as well as technical expertise had to be developed at national level.
He said that the Punjab government had also initiated multi-sectoral development projects to achieve growth, self-reliance and sustainability in agriculture sector.
While enhancement of productivity of cash crops was being pursued, the measures to ensure excellence in quality through selected intervention in the form of establishing pesticide residual testing laboratories, ground water quality assessment and community integrated pest management programmes were being launched simultaneously, he added.
The improvement and up-gradation of existing soil testing and pesticides quality analysis laboratories for their accreditation at national level and ISO Certification was also underway, he said. LCCI Senior Vice President, Yaqoob Tahir Izhar and Provincial Secretary Agriculture Fayyaz Bashir also spoke on the occasion.
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