Agricultural output: Hina asks researchers to come up with doable solutions

Former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar showed her concern that agricultural productivity of major crops had been facing stagnation for the last many years for which researchers and other stakeholders should come up with doable solutions to address the issue of food security and rural development. She was addressing a meeting of researchers at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF). The meeting was chaired by UAF Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan at the Syndicate Room, UAF.
Talking to participants, she said that the researches should not be piled up in the libraries that must address the ground realities of the society. She added that gap between researches and ground realities exist in Pakistan. She stressed upon the need to take the measures to reduce the post harvest losses and to adopt value addition mechanism for the uplift of the agriculture sector.
She said that the cotton productivity has faced 35 percent decline this year, aggravating the problems of farming community. The agriculture is the backbone of country which is directly linked to poverty alleviation, she said, adding that agricultural modern tools must be reached at the doorstep of farming community. If we demonstrate modern agricultural trends in the farmers land, it will be multiplied.
Talking about education, she said that education was the engine of the development and prosperity of the nation. It is a positive trend that women were getting agricultural education. She termed the education an engine of bright future. She added that women should come to the practical life in order to pay back to the society which they gained during their education.
Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said, "We were losing 40 percent of agricultural productivity in the post harvest losses. He also said that 50 percent of our population was malnourished. The food fortification needs to be adopted. He added that we are importing the oil worth billions of rupees.
It can be overcome by promoting its cultivation. He said that the UAF has developed short duration oilseed named UAF 11 that will raise the productivity upto 40 mounds. He said that UAF had established balanced use of fertiliser model that provides suggestion to the farmers and save billion of rupees in term of fertiliser. He said that UAF had introduced manifold chicken varieties and kicked off rural poultry programme. Under which, poor families were being given hens to promote it. He said that that citrus greening was playing the havoc with the citrus world-wide.