Model Farms To Be Set Up In Support With Punjab Govt; Ch Fawad

Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Friday announced that the model farms will be set up in collaboration with the Punjab government as a part of efforts to modernize the agriculture sector

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jan, 2021 ) :Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Friday announced that the model farms will be set up in collaboration with the Punjab government as a part of efforts to modernize the agriculture sector.

He was speaking as a chief guest at the groundbreaking ceremony of National Center of Industrial Biotechnology at the Pir Mehr Ali Shah-Arid Agricultural University, Rawalpindi.

Chaudhry Fawad said Pakistan has not focused on modernizing agriculture sector in the past and still importing ginger worth 100 million Dollars from abroad, "We cannot go beyond by sowing the routine potato, pea and carrot", he said.

It is very unfortunate that Pakistan was still not been able to create linkages between the universities and the market. "We are not producing anything locally for our 220 million people of the country", he said.

The federal minister stated that the government was focusing on agricultural drones which would help transform agriculture sector. "Through this Bio Technology Center, we are now combining the industrial biotechnology and agriculture technology", he added.

The punishment for not taking timely decisions is borne by the nations for the decades, he said.

He lamented that Pakistan despite having the world's largest canal system was lagging behind.

The minister stated that advancement of science is indispensable for achieving progress and the modern world was not created by politicians or clerics but universities.

� "People were saying that India and China have made vaccines and Pakistan did not. The reason was that�India and China worked in the 70's but we did nothing", the federal minister said.

The minister said the reason of privatization is to enable the country for manufacturing things locally and achieving self-sufficiency.�"We are building Al-Khalid tanks but unable to manufacture vehicles due to the missing civil-military relationship".

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan wants to increase the local production and enable the country to produce all the essential commodities of daily use locally.

�Provincial Minister for Agriculture, Syed Hussain Jahanian speaking on the occasion, said the country's agriculture sector has witnessed significant development with the passage of time which resulted in increased production.

The country was still relying on the traditional way of agriculture. Agricultural growth was not up to the mark due to unavailability of modern machinery and technology and lack of training of farmers.

The provincial minister highlighted the need to introduce modern machines which is the need of the hour.

He said, "We are happy to open Biotechnology Center in the university premises as the use of biotechnology is essential to compete with the international market in terms of improving quality".

The minister pointed out that it will be difficult for Pakistan to compete internationally without adapting to biotechnology for bio-safety.

It is heartening to see that the Ministry of Science and Technology under the capable leadership of Chaudhry Fawad Hussain is working diligently in biotechnology sector.

A large number of university officials and prominent personalities attended the ceremony besides students.