A five-day international training workshop on "Organic farming, organic production and inspection" has started here on Monday. The event was jointly organised by the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (Parc), Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) and National Productivity Organisation (NPO) Pakistan.
Delegates from 10 Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) member countries, which include Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand and four international trainers/resource persons from India, Philippines and Germany along with two local resource persons will participate in this workshop.
Parc Chairman Dr M. E. Tasneem while inaugurating the workshop said the topic of the workshop was vitally important because the production, marketing and use of organic agricultural products was expanding at a fast pace throughout the world.
He said food safety and sustainability lied at the heart of organic farming and was one of the major factors determining the acceptability or otherwise of specific production practices.
The term "organic" was best thought of as referring to the concept of the farm as an organism, in which all the component parts - the soil minerals, organic matter, micro-organisms, insects, plants, animals and humans - interacted to create a coherent, synergistic and stable production environment, he added.
Dr Tasneem said although at present organic foods were estimated to account for only one to two percent of food sales world-wide, future growth was expected to increase substantially depending on the nutritional awareness and economic development status of the countries.