Chairman Standing Committee on Horticulture & Agriculture Produce of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI), Ahmad Jawad has urged the Prime Minister of Pakistan to intervene and stop the conversion of the National Agricultural Research Council (NARC) premises into the residential colony and give directions to Capital Development Authority (CDA) for issuance of new lease agreement with the PARC on the existing premises.
He expressed serious concerns over the move by the CDA to transform the agricultural research land of NARC into a housing society which was given to them in 1980's. The country needs effective research centers not housing schemes as Pakistan agriculture sector contributes 24% to the GDP.
Ahmad Jawad termed the proposal by the CDA as economic suicide. He stated that the only question that needs attention is whether agriculture sector needs to survive in Pakistan or not. If yes, then research only guarantees survival and development of agriculture. He highlighted that it is just because of research contributions made by this organisation despite the shrinkage of agricultural land in past few decades, the country never witnessed food shortage. "To relocate the NARC premises would give irreparable loss to the agriculture sector of Pakistan and we would go back again from where we started," Jawad observed.
However, this move clearly shows that urban interests are more important than the development of the agricultural sector. Similarly, it was also impossible to shift the NARC to some other place as the shifting of gene bank and mother block of fruit orchards is not possible. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has been established on 500 hectares of land but none of the political regimes has ever thought to shift the body somewhere else and build a housing colony on its land .
"We may acknowledge the contribution made by the NARC and PARC in research and agriculture like development of disease resistant high yielding wheat varieties, development of farm machines, introduction of European honey bees for enhanced honey production, diagnosis and management of banana bunchy top virus, diagnosis of cotton leave curl virus, introduction of canola type mustard varieties, introduction of strawberry as new crop, bioremediation of sewage water, eradication of Rhinder Pest disease and management oof the foot and mouth disease It's high that the government must taking measures to increase agriculture production and infrastructure.
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