MULTAN: Farmers with the help of agriculture scientists and exporters can boost the sector in the country, said Federal Minister for Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Bosan, while addressing a seminar on Elimination of Fruit Flies from Orchards.
The minister also distributed special traps among farmers to annihilate fruit flies from mango orchards. Pakistan Agriculture Research Council Director Dr Hamza, progressive farmers Maj Retd Tariq, Malik Shafi Mangana and others were also present on the occasion.
Sikandar Hayat Bosan said that a period of traditional style of farming had been over. He urged farmers to adopt new ways and technologies to promote the agriculture sector. He said farmers and exporters should join hands to create win-win situation to earn profit from the sector. He added that exporters should not exploit farmers and they should give a proper share to the farming community.
He said if exporters would earn more and offer less to farmers than the situation would not be favourable for exporters in future as the farming community would not be able to produce more because of low economic gains. He stressed farmers to follow proper procedure and guidelines to manage mango orchards.
The minister urged farmers to produce quality fruits so that it could be exported to the world. He also suggested farmers to cultivate crops on time for bumper and quality yield. He stressed agriculture scientists to shift findings of their research toward the farming community properly so that they could be able to cultivate crops on their recommendations.
