LAHORE: The Punjab government on Friday approved 40 new research projects worth Rs 900 million related to agriculture, livestock and fisheries.

The approval was accorded in the 48th meeting of the Punjab Agricultural Research Board (PARB) while its Chief Executive Dr. Abid Mehmood while submitting the proposals briefed the audience about the objectives of these projects.

The Punjab Agriculture Minister S. M. Tanveer presided over the meeting. Secretary Agriculture Punjab Iftikhar Ali Sahoo, Vice Chancellor MNS Agriculture University, Multan Dr. Asif Ali and other members also participated in the meeting.

Speaking on this occasion, the Minister stressed the need that benefits of agricultural research should reach to the farmers and publics. Agricultural projects should be designed according to the market and commercial scale demand. He further said that there was a need to implement such agricultural projects on a commercial scale which would meet the demand of the people and stabilize the prices.

Secretary Agriculture Punjab Iftikhar Ali Sahoo said that the purpose of research should not be “research for the sake of research” but should be the preparation of such types of new varieties of crops which could increase the profit of farmers and bring relief to the people. He also directed to keep an eye about the existing agricultural research while developing hybrid varieties of sunflower.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023