ISLAMABAD, Sept 10: Research in agriculture can play a vital role in poverty alleviation and boosting economy of the country.

This was stated by Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock, Khair Mohammad Junejo, while presiding over the 21st meeting of the board of governors (BoG) at the PARC Headquarters here on Tuesday.

Mr Junejo, who is also president of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), said the government was giving top priority to the agriculture sector for economic uplift. He said due to the dedicated efforts of the scientists, Pakistan had started exporting wheat and was progressively making its way into the international market.

He said a tea processing plant had been set up at Mansehra and it had started production on small scale which was a success story of the PARC. He said tea cultivation was gradually being expanded in collaboration with farmers.

Speaking on the policy objectives, the minister said agricultural development in Pakistan continued to be food security, import substitution, value addition and export oriented.

Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) came into existence, global changes are occurring to meet the standards of the WTO to compete the international markets. He said if Pakistan wanted to compete in the export then we would have to follow the WTO standards.

He said the PARC being the apex organization of agricultural research in the country had to take lead in developing a far sighted National Agricultural Research System (NARS) for Pakistan. He said while the PARC had taken good initiatives by reorganizing itself, starting grain quality labs and doing research and development work on tea, much more was needed to be done to meet the challenges. He appreciated the scientists and asked them to guide the country at large in developing agricultural research agenda for a prosperous Pakistan.

Dr Badaruddin Soomro, the PARC chairman, gave an indepth presentation to the members of the BoG and highlighted the PARC’s contribution towards National Agricultural Research System Development, PARC resources, news initiatives, strengthening research, education and extension linkage.

Mr Soomro said the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council had completed 45 projects, established 115 buildings and labs, established 30 farms, supplied equipment, vehicles, computers and coordinated 14 programmes. He told the participants of the meeting that 439 scientists had been provided training in all the provinces, besides short-term overseas training to 1,016 scientists was also provided and local training was provided to 7,271 relating to various disciplines.

He said the government had allowed the PARC to establish an agricultural research endowment fund.

Dr. Soomro apprised the members of the National Agricultural Research System’s issues identified by the committee which include, autonomy to the PARC, empowerment of BoG, coordination among NARS, research-extension linkages, career structure of scientists, selection of institutional head, and agricultural research in private sector.

Later, Dr Aleem Mahmud, member (finance), presented the budget.

Progressive farmers raised many questions which were answered by the federal minister for food, agriculture and livestock.

The meeting was attended by federal secretaries, food, agriculture and livestock, finance, planning and development, heads of provincial agricultural institutions, vice-chancellors of agricultural universities, progressive farmers, the president, Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah, technical members of the PARC and senior scientists.