June 08, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 03, 1429

MIRPURKHAS, June 7: The government has launched a programme with the cooperation of Australian government to control mango diseases.

It was disclosed by Sindh Abadgar Board President Abdul Majeed Nizamani at 43rd annual national mango and summer fruits festival here on Saturday.

He said that on behalf of the government a gardener’s training programme had been launched for imparting training of modern technology.

Mr Nizamani said Pakistan is lucky that its lands are fertile but facing destruction due to salinity, water logging and loadshedding.

He said that agriculture scientists should conduct research on disease of crops particularly of mangoes and introduces disease free varieties of fruits.

Sindh Agriculture Research Director General Hidayatullah Chhajro said on the occasion that mangoes had become a part of our civilisation. He said different programmes had been launched to provide information to farmers.

He said a post harvest technology programme had been started at lands of progressive farmers so that information could be provided to them in their fields.

He advised farmers that they should contact agriculture experts for mangoes’ disease control.

Earlier, agriculture scientists and experts Dr Atta Hussain Soomro, Dr Abdul Sattar Buriro, Mukhtiar Ahmed Jafri, Syed Imtiaz Shah, Abdul Salam Abbasi, Sohail Mazhar, Mehmood Nawaz Shah and Syed Ali Gohar Shah spoke on the occasion.

On Friday, the Sindh Minister for Agriculture, Syed Ali Nawaz Shah, visited the festival as a chief guest.

He said that the mango festival had regularly been organised since past 42 years by the festival managing committee and district administration to encourage farmers.He inaugurated the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Mango Hall and 43rd national annual mango and summer fruits festival at the Sindh Horticulture Research Institute. The hall is constructed at a cost of Rs58.7 million.

He said this was a first time that festival was being held in a newly built air-conditioned hall.

He announced that an agriculture training school would be opened in the area while a big vegetable market would be established in Mirpurkhas.