RAWALPINDI: Federal Minister for Science and Technology Senator Shibli Faraz said Pakistan has a natural climate to grow hemp and the ministry has started work to formulate a national hemp policy.

He stated this at the inaugural ceremony of “PCSIR hemp value chain development programme 2021”, held at the Institute of Hydroponics Agriculture (IHA) of Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi in Rawat on Thursday.

University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Qamaruz Zaman, Additional Secretary Ministry of Science and Technology Dr Syed Ataur Rehman and Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) Dr Syed Hussain Abidi along with faculty members, and prominent scientists also attended the ceremony. The hemp development programme is a project of the government initiated on the directives of the the prime minister.

The PCSIR will execute the project in collaboration with the the arid agriculture university. Under the project, hemp will be cultivated and processed for the development of medicinal/industrial products.

The minister said the future of the country’s development lay in science. He also said it is very unfortunate that the agriculture sector which was the backbone of our economy had not received due attention in the past.

He said Pakistan has a vast and well-developed network of R&D institutions and academia and the government is paying due attention to the optimal utilisation of these natural resources through coordinated efforts of available scientific and academic infrastructure with particular emphasis on the commercialisation of resultant products, technologies, processes and services.

He said that academia-industry linkage was very important for any country’s progress, and appreciated the efforts of the university for its work to bridge the gap between academia and industry.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2021