FAISALABAD, Feb 21: Punjab Minister for Agricultural Marketing Rana Qasim Noon has stressed on developing marketing techniques on modern lines to compete in the international market.

He was talking to the participants in the ‘International Wheat Seminar’ held here at the Ayub Agricultural Research Institute on Tuesday.

He said the Punjab government had launched a number of projects for marketing of crops while a good number of schemes were in the pipeline.

Mr Noon asked researchers to draft policies with the help of agricultural marketing department so that the farmers could get maximum benefit.

He emphasised the need for building modern marketing system on the basis of new scientific approaches. Value-addition in agricultural produce could fetch more profits for the farmers.

In another session, agriculture secretary Fayyaz Bashir emphasised on narrowing yield gap among the big and small farmers. He desired that benefits of modern technology must reach the ordinary farmers so that overall agricultural production could be enhanced.

He also thanked the participants, particularly foreign research scholars, for taking keen interest in the seminar.

Wheat Research Institute director Dr Aqil Khan presented an overview of the country and said timely sowing of wheat could pave the way for achieving self-sufficiency and even generate surplus for export.

About two dozen agricultural research scholars and wheat experts from the country and abroad presented their research papers on global challenges to wheat growers. They drew the attention of agricultural scientists towards the problems of declining soil fertility, drought, water shortage and global warming and stressed on tackling them immediately.

Meanwhile, minister Qasim Noon also spoke to industrialists at the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry and presented the future programmes of his department.

He said the time had come for the government and the entrepreneurs to launch joint policies to meet the changing requirements in the international markets.

Earlier, FCCI president Mian Hanif highlighted the problems being faced by the industrialists.

PHONES DEAD: Hundreds of telephones of Chak Jhumra Town have gone silent for the last three days owing to cable theft.