July 30, 2008	Wednesday	Rajab 26, 1429

ISLAMABAD, July 29: Agriculture experts at a conference on Tuesday were of the unanimous view that poor management and infrastructure as well as lack of standardisation were the main hurdles in boosting dates' production and export in the country.

The two-day conference on “Boosting production of dates for exports” has been organised by Pakistan Horticulture Foundation in collaboration with Pakistan Science Foundation and National Agriculture Research Centre (NARC).

Scientists and agriculture expets from four provinces, Azad Kashmir, Tribal and Northern areas are attending the conference to create awareness, generate interest and educate growers, retailers, wholesalers and exporter in advanced production of dates and handling for exports.

Speaking on the occasion, Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture Nazar Mohammad Gondal said horticultural products had great potential to earn foreign exchange and the only thing they had to do was to explore all avenues to boost their export.

He said that Pakistani fruits like kinnow, mango, dates and apples were in great demand in Gulf states, Singapore, Malaysia, the UK and Germany.

The minister said that agriculture being backbone of country’s economy provided raw material to industrial sector besides earning 75 per cent foreign exchange through the export of raw or value-added products.

He said Pakistan was ranked 5th in the dates producing countries of the world and it could fetch millions of dollars every years through increasing export of horticulture products.

Minister Gondal exhorted upon the scientists to fully benefit from the emerging technologies in the world aiming at increasing per acre horticulture yield and minimising the input cost. He stressed the need for decreasing post-harvest losses, ensuring proper packing and marketing as well as producing value-added products to enhance country's horticulture exports.

He appealed to the scientists to recommend steps for solutions to the problems and issues confronted by the farmers in date cultivation, adding that they could help the country become self-reliant in food in this era of food scarcity.

APP adds: Commissioner (Minor Crops) Dr Mohammad Aslam Gill, in his presentation highlighted various issues and problems related to dates production and exports.

He was of the view that non-availability of quality plants, lack of standardisation and market information system, non-availability of infrastructure, such as, cool chain system, storage, processing industry and modern wholesale marketing were the key elements responsible for low production and export of dates.