The CAB International (CAB), Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) and All Pakistan Fruit & Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association (PFVA) have joined hands to improve the quality and standard of horticulture products in Pakistan and to dealing with rising pets issues with fruits and vegetable.
In this regard, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by the three organisations including CAB International, which is an international inter-governmental organisation, The MoU was signed by Dr Babar Bajwa, regional director CABI Pakistan, Dr Muabrak Ahmed Director General Southern Zone Agricultural Research Centre and Waheed Ahmed Chairman (R&D) PFVA.
The CAB International will provide the funding through the USDA funded project to work on control of Papaya Mealy bug and Apple Mites and Coding Moth in Pakistan. This work ill be funded for three years.
The SARC and PFVA will be the main collaborators in the project. CAB1 will build capacity of SARC and PFVA members and will also initiate research and development programme to control mealy bug which will be a key step towards reducing pets risk to horticulture industry of Pakistan. The SARC will also be supported by up-grading a Biological Control Laboratory at the SARC, Karachi. The CABI, SARC and PFVA will continue to develop and implement such projects in collaborative manner to benefit the horticultural export industry of Pakistan.
The MoU was signed for five years and will expire in 2020. CABI, PARC and PFVA can develop, initiate and run new projects on need basis during and beyond this period. SARC will provide the office and laboratory space to CABI for the biological laboratory. Waheed Ahmed, Co Chairman PFVA, said that it was need of the hour to improve the country's products as per quality demand in domestic and international markets. He said that Pakistan was fast becoming an importing country of even horticulture products mainly because of the negligence on the part of government and farmers towards quality improvements of the products.