ISLAMABAD, July 25: Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock Sikandar Hayat Bosan said on Tuesday the government was focussing on cash crops and high-value agricultural products to promote income generation in rural areas.

“Besides, adhering to medium and long term development framework, horticulture development has been identified as one of the key areas to achieve the goal,” he added.

He was speaking at the concluding session of the workshop on citrus organised by Australia-Pakistan Agriculture Sector Linkages Programme and PARC here on Tuesday.

Mr Bosan said public sector investment in development had risen from Rs98 billion in 2001 to Rs435 billion in 2006 and the macro- economic stability due to consistent policies pursued by the government has started reaping rich dividends.

“We have had record cotton crops of 14.6 million and 13 million bales in last two years and we got record 21.6 million and 21.7 million tons of wheat crop during the same period,” he said adding that the country had record exports of rice this year. Public sector investment in agriculture has risen from Rs1 billion in 2003 to Rs12 billion this year.

“We are now targeting an annual growth of 5 per cent in agriculture sector and in order to attain this target, our focus is not only on productivity enhancement of major crops but also on horticulture, which is an integral part of agriculture,” he added.

Amongst horticulture crops, the minister said, citrus fruit was of pivotal importance. It is popular in domestic as well as international market and is exported both in fresh and processed forms.

He said, “We have not been able to fully exploit the potential of this fruit because of pre and post harvest losses. We are mindful of the fact that real benefit would come with improved processing facilities and compliance of the international standards,” he added.—APP