January 27, 2006	Friday	Zilhaj 26, 1426

ISLAMABAD, Jan 26: The government is considering a proposal to import agriculture implements/equipments from China for irrigation to increase per acre production of the export-oriented farm products in the next few years.

“We have submitted a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) to the Chinese government recently for transfer of this technology to Pakistan,” said Ismail Qureshi, secretary of the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock.

Talking to Dawn, the secretary said that with the help of this technology, not only the wastage of water would be saved, but it would also provide an appropriate share of water according to the need of the plants.

He said that the cost of technology would be borne by the private sector which had already shown willingness, but in certain cases the government would also subsidize the deserving farmers.

Initially, it was planned that the technology would be applied on some specific areas for some specific products of export interests which might be in the range of 200,000 to 300,000 acres of land.

Mr Qureshi said that Pakistan had surpluses worth $3 billion of kinnos, mangoes and dates. “We needed market for the export of these products,” he said, adding that the export of kinno to China would increase manifold this year.

Regarding cotton production, Mr Qureshi said that this year the production would reach 13 million bales. He said that so far around over 12.4 million bales had arrived in the market. He expressed the hope that the figures would touch the 13-million mark in the next few weeks following the complete arrival of cotton in the market.

He was of the opinion that despite less cotton production this year as compared to the last year, the production recorded this year was the second highest. However, he said that it would be according to the required needs.

In reply to a question, the secretary said that every year exporters import long staple, or contamination-free cotton, which was not produced locally. He said that this year long staple cotton would also be imported for the required need of the textile industry.

When asked about a sharp increase in the wheat flour price following the abolishing of regulatory duty, Mr Qureshi said that the price would not increase further as Pakistan already had sufficient stock to meet the local requirement.

He said that this year the wheat target would be achieved easily. He said that a stock of 0.3 million tons of wheat was lying with the government department.

Mr Qureshi ruled out withdrawal of the duty exemption from import of wheat and wheat flour and added that the policy measures should remain in place and should not be changed frequently. The secretary pointed out that the government had no plan to levy regulatory duty on export of gur.