PCJCCI proposes joint agriculture laboratory under CPEC
Lahore: Pakistan China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) has proposed to establish a joint agriculture laboratory under the framework of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Chairing a meeting here at PCJCCI Secretariat, the joint chamber’s President Moazzam Ghurki said that the agriculture laboratory would help aware and improve the agriculture sector of Pakistan by technology transfer for the increase of cultivation and production.
He added that the project would not only help the farmers by lowering the need to invest in insecticides and pesticides but also alleviate poverty in Pakistan.
PCJCCI Senior Vice President Fang Yulong on the occasion said that technology transfer was extremely important so this Pakistan-China agriculture laboratory would definitely help in exchanging contemporary and innovative techniques.
“We will also launch various awareness courses for the farmers for enhancing cultivation and production,” he added.
Yulong mentioned that wheat was the largest food crop in Pakistan and continuous increase in wheat yield had become a strategic objective to ensure food security in Pakistan.
“China’s success story in using molecular breeding technology to breed high-yielding, disease-resistant and high-quality wheat varieties would be very useful for Pakistan to increase wheat production,” he observed.
In his speech, PCJCCI Vice President Hamza Khalid said that there was a dire need to introduce smart agriculture in Pakistan because this would definitely help in awareness and educating the farmers with the modern ways and technologies of the world.
“We are still stuck to the old traditions of farming which are no more cost effective and reliable. Through Pak-China Joint Agriculture Laboratory we should inculcate the smart agriculture technology among the farmers and connect them with e-commerce platforms through which they can also access contemporary machinery of agriculture at reasonable and nominal rates,” he remarked.
PCJCCI Secretary General Salahuddin Hanif was of the view that with the country’s current massive internet penetration rate, which was likely to grow further in the years ahead.
“We should connect the entire agricultural chain of Pakistan with e-commerce from production to marketing. This digital transformation should be the prime motive of Pak China Agriculture Laboratory because it will help in reducing agricultural production costs, upgrading efficiency and creating new job opportunities for local communities in the rural areas of Pakistan,” he underscored.
