President General Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday emphasised the need for optimum utilisation of research and technology and urged the agricultural scientists to help the farmers achieve a quantum jump in per acre yield of crops to improve agriculture sector and alleviate poverty.
The President was addressing the inaugural ceremony of silver jubilee celebrations of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council here at the National Agricultural Research Centre. The President regretted that in last 30 years no dam could be constructed adding that the present government has started various projects to build dams.
He said work on Bhasha-Diamir Dam has been started while Merani Dam has been completed. He said all other big and small dams including Munda Dam, Akhori Dam and Kalabagh Dam will be constructed to provide adequate water for irrigation to the farmers.
President Musharraf said agriculture sector is backbone of the country. He said the country has tremendous potential, all types of fertile land and weathers but there is need to adopt co-ordinated efforts at all levels to get benefit from these natural resources to increase agricultural production.
The President said with 70 percent population depending on the agriculture sector, Pakistan is an agrarian society, therefore, it was the responsibility of the agricultural scientists and researchers to help the farmers to increase the production of their crops.
Appreciating the efforts of the scientists working in Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, the President said due to their efforts there was quantum jump in the wheat production and other crops.
Referring to availability of water, the President said the country has abundant water resources but there is need to build water reservoirs to store it and use it at appropriate time. The President said many canals including Thal canal, Rainy canal and Rikki canal are being constructed for better utilisation of the available water for irrigation.
President Musharraf said due to shortage of water, "We should utilise less water, so that we can irrigate more land by using laser levelling, drip irrigation and sprinklers."
He said laser levelling helps in reducing the use of power and water, therefore, the farmers should be motivated to use these technologies. President said more than 30 percent water, which was wasted in the watercourses was now being saved through brick lining of these courses.
He said the work on brick lining is in full swing and half of it has been completed while in all 86,000 watercourses would be completed within next two years. In Balochistan, the President said, besides the work on brick lining, the government was also improving water tanks to save water.
Musharraf asked the scientists associated with the agricultural research to project and promote their research in a proper way using the mass media. Referring to the importance of support price, the President said government increased the support price of wheat and it helped in improvement of per acre yield.
He however, emphasised the need to adopt a comprehensive market mechanism, so that there should be no need to increase support price and the farmers could get benefit from the market directly. Referring to loans for the farmers, President Musharraf said Zarai Tarqiati Bank of Pakistan Limited (ZTBL) has been directed to help the poor farmers. He said besides rupees 30 billion loans from ZTBL, now the private and other banks have also been providing loans to farmers and rupees 160 billion are available as agriculture loans.
Emphasising the need on value addition the President said Pakistan is the fifth largest milk producing country, but due to lack of facilities, it could not utilise the milk produced in the country. He said multinational companies like Nestle are increasing their activities in this sector the company is setting up its biggest ever milk plant in Kabir Wala due to abundant supply of milk in the area.
President Musharraf said there is a need to bring in "white revolution" in the country as Pakistan has great potential in milk production. President also agreed to the proposal to improve the service structure of the scientists working at the PARC and added that there should be more financial return for them.
Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock Sikandar Hayat Bosan speaking on the occasion highlighted various projects and incentives for the improvement of the per acre yield. Chairman PARC Dr Muhammad Tasneen in his welcome address highlighted the work done by the scientists of the PARC for the benefit of the farmers.
The President gave away Silver Jubilee awards to five scientists for their services rendered in the field of research in agriculture sector. Those who received awards included Dr Amir Muhammad, founder chairman PARC, Dr Kauser Abdullah Malik former chairman PARC, Dr Rafique Ahmad ex-director Honeybee Research Institute NARC, Dr Muhammad Afzal Director General NARC and Late Ikram ul Haque ex-Director Planning PARC. Earlier, the President visited an exhibition arranged on this occasion.