Argentina and Pakistan would enhance co-operation in developing state-of-the-art slaughterhouses, milk and meat processing and food engineering technologies. This was stated by Ambassador Argentina Rodolfo J Martin-Saravia who was flanked by Deputy Head of Mission, Argentina Embassy, Eduardoo Bustamante, while addressing a meeting of high-ranked officials of the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF) at Syndicate Room on Wednesday.
The ambassador said that although Pakistan was the fifth largest country in milk producing but it was also the fact that the country was listed No 1 in wasting the milk. He said the country was lagging far behind in producing good quality of dry milk and cheese at par with the international markets. He said Pakistan was producing huge quantity of buffaloes' milk that was raw material for world most-wanted Mozilla Cheese, adding that cheese was a base of pizza which was in high demand across the globe.
He stressed the need to uplift the sector by using improved methods in a bid to earn a heavy foreign exchange. He said that both countries had similarity as the agriculture was contributing a lion's share to the economies. The ambassador said that his country was being listed in the top three countries across the globe that had eradicated cows' disease called 'foot and mouth' by developing modern vaccines.
He said that his country was producing citrus extract and earning heavy money by exporting it. Besides it, he maintained the country was exporting meat and processed milk to various countries because of developed slaughterhouses and modern methods of processing keeping in view WTO standards.
He said he had held meetings with Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Shareef in which they discussed provision of cool tank to the farming community on subsidised rates and modern vaccine for mouth and foot disease in order to enhance the productivity. He hoped that contribution of private sector would help in development of dairy and meat sectors. He expressed his reservation over 60 percent wastage of apple production in Balochistan as a food of animals, and urged the need to map out comprehensive post-harvest strategies in this regard.
Lauding the UAF, he said that his embassy would remain in contact to the university and would work out to provide trainings to the faculty members in specific fields. UAF Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said the world was under the grip of the food insecurity challenges because of increasing population and climate changes, adding it was imperative to step up efforts in this regard. He said that due to increasing population, industrialisation and migration, per acre land in Pakistan was diminishing. In 1961, per person land was 0.42 hectare but now it had reduced to 0.11 hectare, he said further.
He said that during the span of four years, the university had inked 73 international and 52 national memorandums of understanding in a bid to increase the agricultural production of the country. He said currently, the university was working on 214 research projects with the cost of 1,200 million rupees. He also briefed the envoy about the achievement of the university and the agricultural situation of the country. Earlier, the Ambassador flanked by Deputy Head of Mission met UAF Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan at VC Chamber and discussed the matters of mutual concerns.
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