United States of America (USA) would provide assistance for agriculture research and human resources' capacity building to increase agriculture productivity in the country. A US delegation visited Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (Parc) and National Agriculture Research Council (Narc) here on Wednesday.
The delegation was headed by Carid Rexroad, Associate Administrator United States Department of Agriculture, Margaret Thursland and Agricultural Counsellor US Embassy in Pakistan.
Carid Rexroad said that USA would provide assistance to Pakistan in building human resources capacity in the fields of agricultural research with emphasis on biotechnology, bio-safety, bio-security, climate change, agriculture policy analysis and international trade, Strengthening of Animal and Plant Health services and Export of irradiated fruits and vegetables to USA.
The delegation also called on the Chairman Parc, Dr M E Tusneem and discussed different future collaboration projects in the field of agricultural research in Parc.
Chairman Parc briefed the delegation about various activities being carried out at the Parc in collaboration with other international agencies. Members of Parc and Director General Narc was also presented in the meeting.
Dr Tusneem said that pests and diseases, declining farm profitability and degradation of natural resources base including land, water and forests coupled with high population growth are now posing threat to food security and environmental sustainability of the current production system.
He said that emerging challenges, global warming, climate change, diversification into high value agriculture, value addition, food safety and competitiveness of agriculture in international markets need to be addressed to make agriculture productive, profitable, competitive and sustainable.
Dr Tusneem informed the delegation about the success of Agricultural Linkage of Programme (ALP) and proposed to build on the existing excellent co-operation between the concerned departments of Pakistan and USA.
He appraised the delegation that Pakistan was moving towards diversification into high value agriculture, value addition especially in livestock and horticulture crops and to enhance the productivity by narrowing yield gap.
He also informed that high efficiency irrigation systems and other water saving technologies, demand driven research for new technologies and innovations, ensuring fair price to farmers, improve market access and infrastructure was imperative to boost up agriculture sector.
Pak-US officials identified the areas of collaboration including Plant protection, social sciences, animal sciences, natural resources, training of social scientists in the field of trade and agriculture research.
Later, the delegation visited Animal Sciences Institute, Grain Quality Testing Laboratory, Green houses for wheat nurseries, Biotechnology Laboratory, Gene Bank at Plant Genetic and Racers Institute and Geo-informatics lab at Water Resources Institute. The delegation was much impressed to see the facilities and scientists working at Narc.