Pakistan and China immensely cooperating in agriculture sector under CPEC: Food Minister

Islamabad: Pakistan and China are immensely cooperating in the agriculture sector under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Pakistani food minister said.

Federal Minister of National Food Security Syed Fakhar Imam received a delegation headed by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on CPEC Affairs Khalid Mansoor here for a meeting.

During the meeting, Fakhar Imam maintained that the two countries should furtehr enhance agricultural technological exchange.

“Pakistan and China will immensely benefit from exchange in agriculture research and value-added technologies,” he added.

Imam Minister stressed that agriculture was main focus of Pakistan for economic growth and food security. “Therefore, the government is focusing on transforming agriculture sector on modern lines with strong science and technology basis. Similarly, mechanization and climate smart agriculture tools are the need of the day,” he remarked.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on CPEC Affairs Khalid Mansoor briefed Fakhar Imam on the progress regarding agreed areas of cooperation in the agriculture sector in the Joint Cooperation Committee and the respective Joint Working Group.

Mansoor updated the minister about the eight areas of cooperation in CPEC with regard to agriculture which includes capacity building, germplasm resources, agricultural product processing, agricultural technology extension, fishery science and technology, aquaculture, and aquatic product processing, establishment of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) free zones in Pakistan, market information and agricultural trade and cooperation for agricultural development under CPEC.

In his concluding comments, Federal Minister Fakhar Imam emphasized that keeping the future challenges of population growth and climate change effects, there was a need to explore science-based solutions to secure to ensure food and nutritional security along with rich raw material supply to industry.

Imam appreciated that the People’s Republic of China was quite advance in agriculture science and technology with advance crop lines-hybrids, bio-technological tools, advance farm machinery and modern tools – precision agriculture and artificial intelligence – and thus Pakistan should benefit from their advancement through cooperation.

Fakhar Imam noted that Pakistan faced a number of challenges but with the right policy interventions under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, agriculture sector can be transformed.

He regretted that Pakistani agriculture had been tottering along the traditional agricultural techniques and it is time that “we start to look ahead to the future in terms of modernization.”

Fakhar Imam praised the current government’s efforts and said that in the last 70 years the main set back to research was insufficient funds. “This is the first time in the history of Pakistan that under Prime Minister Initiative Program billions of rupees have been invested in agricultural research which has led to record production of wheat, maize and rice last year,” he contended.

Secretary National Food Security Tahir Khursheed and Senior Joint Secretary Javed Humayun also attended the meeting.