September 8, 2002	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Saani29,1423

LAHORE, Sept 7: Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock, Khair Muhammad Junejo has emphasized the need to adopt modern techniques to ensure increase in the per acre yield of paddy crop.

He said while inspecting the new varieties of rice developed at the Rice Research Institute (RRI), Kala Shah Kaku, on Saturday.

He said that the farmers should be motivated to grow the the high-yielding varieties of rice and utilize new technologies for increasing the per acre plant population.

He further said that to compete in the world market, we would have to produce high quality rice and boost up the exports to earn more foreign exchange.

Earlier, the minister attended a briefing at the RRI.

The Director of the institute briefed the minister about the new varieties being developed and examined.

Junejo was also informed about the production and per acre yield of rice in the country as well as in Punjab.

The 11 per cent share of the rice trade in the world market comes from Pakistan. The problems regarding low production, quality and latest techniques for improving plant population and production of rice were also discussed at the briefing.—APP