ISLAMABAD, July 19: Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MINFAL), Khair Mohammad Junejo said on Friday that the government was committed to developing the indigenous tea in the country to save foreign exchange.

He said this while presiding over the annual meeting on Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), said an official announcement issued here on Friday.

“Pakistan has been spending huge amounts of foreign exchange on the import of tea from other countries. With the development of indigenous tea in Pakistan, national exchequer would receive a good relief,” he said.

The minister said the MINFAL had kicked off crop maximum project in order to attain self-sufficient in food and its related items.

Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) chairman Badaruddin Soomro while briefing the minister said that Tea Research and Development Programme (TRDP) was commenced in July 1998 with a total cost of Rs60.304 million.

The objective of the project included surveying and modifying specific plantation sites and pioneer farmers. It was aimed at raising 11 million nursery plants at National Tea Research Institute (NTRI) Shinkiari, Mansehra, for transplantation on 2,200 acres of farmers’s fields spread over the project life and to demonstrate/popularize and impart training on technique of tea plantation among the tea growers in district Mansehra and Swat.

The PARC chairman said that TRDP had contributed in raising 2.2 million tea cuttings from selected tea bushes and planted in soil filled polyethylene sleeves in tea nursery.