FAISALABAD, March 28: Federal Food, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Sikandar Hayat Bosan has said that the government has launched an agribusiness development and diversification project costing Rs4.1 billion mainly to meet the requirements of horticulture.

He was addressing the inaugural session of a two-day international symposium “Prospects of horticultural industry in Pakistan” organised by the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) here on Wednesday.

Highlighting the salient features of the project, he said it had been planned for the first time to devise horticulture policy for each province and different stakeholders had been involved in the process.

“Horticulture crops are grown on 1.34 million hectares in Pakistan, producing over 13 million ton fresh produce,” he said.

The minister said mango exports to China and Europe were being facilitated by the government. He urged the scientists to make their utmost effort to increase the horticulture production as fruits and vegetables of Pakistan had a lot of export potential.

Mr Bosan said horticulture sector was being focused from production to processing and value addition and “our goal is to make the country’s agriculture segment productive, profitable and competitive.”

“We have to be ready to compete with international trade requirements by managing our natural resources in a sustainable manner and should aim at holistic development covering the entire value change.”

He stressed the need for controlling pests and diseases to improve the yield.

Speaking to the participants, UAF vice-chancellor Dr Bashir Ahmad said crop production economy of the country was cotton based and the government was trying to lay emphasis on broadening this base for achieving the objective of sustainability.

Spelling out the newly introduced tunnel technology, he said it was gaining momentum in the country while exports of citrus and mango were being enhanced by virtue of better incentives to exporters.

Dr Ahmed expressed his concern over drainage of Rs387 billion on vegetable seeds import in spite of the fact that indigenous seeds excel them in yield.

NIAB Islamabad director-general Dr Iqrar Ahmad, faculty of agriculture dean Dr Iftikhar Ahmad and institute of horticultural sciences director Dr Aslam Pervez also addressed the symposium.