FAISALABAD: Lack of storage capacity for various agricultural produces is a major problem of growers which the middlemen exploit and the government will spend Rs37 billion during the next five years to resolve the issue.

Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said this after inaugurating the Business Incubation Centre (BIC) at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF).

He said since 1960 the agriculture sector had been facing decline up to one per cent every decade that called for strengthening of the sector through investing in research and development and entrepreneurship.

To save the agriculture sector the federal government had allocated Rs2 billion for research and development activities so that sustainable growth target could be achieved, Mr Tarin said.

He said the government would set up four state-of-the-art research centres for major crops — two in Punjab and as many in other provinces — to arrest rising trend of poverty in the country.

He said the government was spending Rs110 billion on water projects, particularly on small and big dams in the country. He asked the UAF water experts to design a national incentive programme to implement water conservation technologies being designed at the institution.

He said the BIC was the right platform to transform the ideas of academia into action through collaborative efforts of industrial and business communities.

Besides, he said, the government was investing in establishment of service centres and model farms at village level in order to boost the business activities at grassroots level.

US special ambassador to Pakistan Ms Robin Raphael urged scientists to transform innovative ideas into action with a proper business and marketing plan through the newly established BIC. She lauded the role of Pakistani scientists in boosting the agriculture sector.

Earlier, addressing the participants, UAF Vice-Chancellor Dr Iqrar Ahmad said the varsity was accommodating 11,000 students and the number would be doubled in the next 10 years.

He said the UAF played the role of catalyst in cotton and poultry revolution in the country and was vigorously trying to do more. He said UAF had submitted research projects worth Rs4 billion to various funding agencies and the academia was looking forward to market its poultry vaccine, fish feed and other technologies through the BIC.