China made rapid progress in agriculture sector by using modern technology: Food Minister

Peshawar: Federal Minister for Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam has said that China had made rapid progress in the agriculture sector by using modern technology.

Speaking to journalists here, Imam stressed that use of latest technology in agriculture research was imperative to achieve self-sufficiency in food services.

“China had made rapid progress because of the use of modern technology and Pakistan had the potential to achieve new heights of economic development and achieve autarky in food by using latest techniques, innovations, mechanization and modern technology especially in agriculture and livestock sectors to earn maximum capital,” he contended.

Fakhar Imam informed that he had held constructive meetings with Chinese agricultural scientists and invited them to visit the country’s agriculture educational and research institutes to deliver lectures so that the students and young scholars could get more knowledge from their rich experiences.

The minister emphasised that the agriculture was backbone of the country’s economy and the government was making efforts to make modern agriculture technology part of the existing educational curriculum to broaden knowledge of students and get maximum agriculture, livestock and fisheries production.

Asked about Khyber Pakhtunkhaw province’s share in Agriculture Transformation Plan, the minister maintained that special projects were launched for increasing value addition of corps, fruits, vegetables, livestock and fisheries besides promoting floriculture.

The minister noted that US, Brazil and Argentina were leading exporters of edible oil while China and India’s Soyabean’s production has touched 240 million tons while Pakistan despite having great potential was spending huge amount on its imports.

He termed it welcoming that the soyabean was being cultivated on about 1500 to 2000 acres areas alone in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A record production of wheat, rice, maize and sugarcane was witnessed last year and Pakistan was moving to achieve self-sufficiency in sugarcane this year, he added.

To a question about recent shortage in urea, the minister mentioned that the government had provided Rs 8 billion to provinces for giving subsidy on urea and the production of urea commodity had swelled to 6.3 million.

Imam said that 100,000 ton phosphate urea would be imported from China in next few weeks, adding that Pakistan-China friendship was time tested and Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to China would further strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries.