ISLAMABAD, Aug 20: Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (Parc) Chairman Dr Badruddin Soomro here on Saturday underlined the need for exchange of expertise between Pakistan and Australia to redress the issues encountered by the country’s agriculture and livestock sectors.

He was talking to a four-member delegation of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) which called on him here at the Parc Headquarters.

The Australian delegation is visiting Pakistan to review a number of programmes between the two countries including Pakistan-Australian joint research and development project on fruits and vegetables for which an MoU had already been signed between the Parc and ACIAR.

The components of the project include grading and packaging of fruits, orchard management, production of vegetable seeds, introduction of high-tech and high-efficiency production system, and grading, treating and packing of vegetable produce.

Talking to the delegation, Dr Soomro said there should be a permanent arrangement so that the experiences of agricultural scientists and experts of both countries could be shared for increasing the output of agriculture sector.

The Australian delegation endorsed Dr Soomro’s views and said a number of bottlenecks in the agriculture and livestock sectors were common in both the countries and needed to be tackled jointly. It also emphasized exchange of visits of experts and scientists, besides holding workshops, seminars and training sessions on regular basis.