LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry appreciated the announcement of Federal Minister for National Food Security & Research Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan not to import tomatoes from India and termed it a step in right direction.
In a statement issued here, the LCCI President Abdul Basit said that Sikandar Hayat Bosan deserves appreciation as this step would encourage the local farmer to grow more besides saving huge foreign exchange.
They said that country has all resources to feed the population therefore local grower should be facilitated to the maximum and their issues should be resolved on priority.
Abdul Basit urged the government to add to the cropped area to avoid any crisis-like situation. They said that we cannot afford to stay where we are today in terms of cropped areas and per hectare yield because we are already running well short of per capita food availability.
They said that though Pakistan’s almost 43% labor force is dependent upon agriculture, the yield gap in the four major crops of Pakistan is three times from the best producers in the world such as China and Egypt. They said that low yield has contributed to the poverty in rural areas besides forcing country to import agriculture produces to feed its population.
The LCCI President said that the fact should be an eye opener that China produces two times more cotton and wheat per hectare and Egypt produces around three times more rice and sugarcane per hectare as compared to Pakistan.
“Factors that are recommended to improve the yield are through large scale introduction of hybrid seeds and mechanized farming, high efficiently irrigation systems such as drip irrigation and reduction in wastage of crop through introduction of privately owned storage facilities and cold storage facilities”, the LCCI President added.
Abdul Basit said that 21st century belongs to Biotechnology and Pakistan has tremendous potential to emerge as Biotechnology leader but to achieve the goal private sector, scientists, researchers and government would have to work hand in hand.
They said that Pakistan’s agriculture sector is losing heavily due to insufficient utilization of biotechnology as the magic progress of agriculture sector is only due to Genetically Modified crops. They said that agriculture sector in Pakistan has a huge potential. It continues to be the single largest and dominant driving force for growth as well as the main source of livelihood for 66 percent of Pakistan’s population. But it has always faced two major problems: first, productions per acre are lower than many countries. Secondly, around 40% of production is wasted in the form of post-harvest losses due to insufficient utilization of biotechnology.
Abdul Basit said that Pakistan is a sleeping technology giant the day it gets up, Pakistan would be another China. They said that it was very unfortunate that the country did not have any framework for transfer of technology. He lamented that there are 400 research institutions in the country but their performance is not up the mark”, the LCCI office-bearers concluded.
