ISLAMABAD: Immense potential exits for bilateral cooperation between Pakistan and China in production, processing and value addition of tropical fruits like banana, coconut, papaya and pineapple besides tropical oil crops like palm oil and tropical bio-fuel crops like king grass.

This was highlighted by Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhr Imam on Thursday during an online workshop. It was jointly organised by the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (Catas) and University of Agriculture, Faisalabad.

The minister thanked the Chinese government and Catas for sharing with Pakistan the king grass germplasm and production technology.

This is a promising technology for producing biomass fuel, and would help meet Pakistan’s food and energy requirements as well as the overall development of tropical agriculture in the country, Mr Imam said while addressing participants of an online workshop on tropical agricultural science and technology cooperation. The workshop was jointly organised by Catas and University of Agriculture, Faisalabad on Thursday.

King grass is a fast growing, high yield, hybrid grass that grows in a variety of soil conditions and does not compete with food crops; it is perennial and can be harvested several times per year, being a short rotation crop with a high potential for ethanol production in tropical countries.

Cultivation of this kind of grass offers material productivity benefits and therefore lowers the cost of biomass feedstock for energy production, biofuels and biomaterials.

The minister said that Catas is the apex body for research and development on tropical crops, and Pakistan can learn a lot from the Chinese experience.

Mr Imam expressed optimism towards the idea of enhanced government-to-government cooperation as well as joint ventures between private sector enterprises to enhance agricultural output and value addition of agricultural products for mutual benefit of both the countries.

Catas will be executing the ‘Tropical Economic Palm Production Technology’ in Pakistan. Mr Imam thanked China for helping Pakistan in palm production technology and highlighted its importance adding that Pakistan spends around $3 billion per annum on the import of palm oil.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2021