The agricultural sector needs to be revamped to catch up the modern trends, to increase the production and to make it profitable business as the sector was far lacking behind from the rest of the world, said Punjab Planning and Development Department Production Sector Wing Member Malik Mukhtar Ahmad.

He addressed agricultural consultative meeting at the Syndicate Room of University of Agriculture Faisalabad. UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan, Chief Agriculture P&D Department Punjab Dr Muhammad Ashraf, all deans and directors attended the meeting.
He urged the agricultural experts to come up with out-of-the-box solutions to the issues facing the sector and farming community . He said that most of the farming community was having small holding. He added that 40 percent world population was living on the 14 percent of the land. He said country was situated at the geographically important place from where we can easily export our agricultural produce to the Central Asia, Middle East, China and other countries which had a large food markets.
He said that value chain and marketing system must be developed at par with the international standards in order to flourish the sector. He added that tangible initiatives based on research would pave the way to compete with the modern world. He was of the view that we are wasting our resources owing to inefficient use of water and inputs etc . It is the need of the hour for the optimal usage of resources that will save millions of the rupees. He maintained that China Pakistan Economic Corridor would open up new avenue of the development and prosperity in term of business opportunity and trade.
He said that the government was making sincere efforts to uplift the sector. In this regards, Punjab Agricultural Policy was being revamped to address the problems. He opined that the establishment of farmers’ cooperative had become imperative for the promotion of modern agri trends and brought the farming community out from the clutches of financial issues.
Earlier, in the briefing, UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan talking about the priorities areas said that the government must promote the drill sowing and quality seed especially for wheat and cotton that will enhance the growth rate upto 4 percent. He added that in Okara, cultivation of maize and potatoes was lowering down the soil fertility for which we need to introduce the soybean as third crop. He urged the government to establish a soybean center for the research and development purpose. He said that that the country was losing the grains and fruits from 20 to 40 percent in the post harvest losses for which we have to promote the modern post harvest practices. He said that amid the situation of climate changes, we have to invest on breeding to develop the climate resilient varieties. He said that the to cope with the situation of the malnutrition, people must promote the food diversification. He said that the sudden deaths of the Sheesham, mangoes, guava must be investigated. He said that forest department staff must possess the degree in the forestry and agriculture in order to address the issue of the declining forest net. He said that the rice and sugarcane are the water intensive crops which must be discouraged amid the situation when the country had been put in the list of the water scarce countries. He said that the Korean innovation park worth Rs 30 billion was being established in the university. He said that the University also houses Chinese Confucius Center.
P&D Department Agriculture Chief Dr Muhammad Ashraf lauded the steps being taken on the part of the varsity for the development of the agriculture sector and for the farming community.