0
MULTAN, Nov 11: A sub-committee meeting of the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) is to be held in Karachi on Monday (today) to discuss issues, including ‘rightsizing’ at federal research stations.
The Agriculture Research Sub-Committee (ARSC) meeting will be held at PCCC headquarters with agriculture development commissioner Dr Muhammad Hanif in the chair.
Following will be the agenda of the two ARSC meetings:
(a) The cotton breeding work should be confined to only Central Cotton Research Institutes (CCRIs) of Multan (Punjab) and Sakrand (Sindh) where genetic pool and stock is already available. Breeding at rest of the stations should be closed so that these sub-stations may be used for cotton development work and testing of material from main institutes.
(b) Reorganizing and restructuring cotton research in the country by giving it new directions and definite objectives.
(c) Monitoring and coordination of provincial and federal cotton research organizations with well-defined objectives.
Analysts are attaching much importance to the ARSC meeting agenda which, according to them, is aimed at to rightsize the ‘titanic’ of PCCC.
MANGO: The provincial agriculture department has notified three committees to address issues related to mango production and marketing.
Mian Saleem Mehmood Kamlana will head a committee on quick decline of the fruit while Muhammad Arshad Gill, Tariq Mali, Shahzad Basheer Cheema, Abdul Aziz Khamosh, Khyzar Hayat Chawan and Kashif Khan Khakwani will be its members.
Zahid Husain Gardezi will chair the committee on gold chain and Rafiqur Rehman, Saleem Alizai, Ejaz Gill, Sarfraz Ali Bhatti, Malik Fahim, Malik Imam Bakhsh and Junaid Khan Tareen are notified as its members.
Khwaja Muhammad Shoaib is assigned to head the committee on mango production and marketing with Rabnawaz Luk, Qaswar Abbas, Haji Allah Nawaz, Hussain Jenhania Gardezi, Nawabzada Saifullah Khan, Javed Akhtar Jamali, Mian Ayaz Ilyas, Khurram Zaman Qureshi, Makhdoom Muhammad Ishaq, Chaudhry Abdul Haq, an agriculture soil chemist from Bahawalpur and a horticulturist (extension) from Multan as its members.
The committee on quick decline will review the literature on quick decline of mango trees, findings of AARI regarding the disease, finalization of curative and preventive measures, demonstration of recommendations to at least three worst-hit orchards in Multan region. The committee will also impart training to the extension-wing staff.
The committee on gold chain will motivate growers, transporters, CAA and exporters to set up gold chains of fruit from farm-to-market after reviewing possibilities of its establishment at various levels of mango marketing and export to keep intact its freshness.
Terms of reference of the production committee are to identify constraints in production, finalization of production technology, harvest and post-harvest handling of the fruit and processing.
Chairman of committees are empowered to co-opt any scientist as their members.
