During the Farmers Convention organized by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated the stalls set up by the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council for exhibition.
Products and other items manufactured by PARC were displayed in the exhibition. On the occasion, the prime minister lauded the role of PARC in the agricultural sector. Chairman Pakistan Agricultural Research Council Dr Muhammad Azeem Khan while briefing the Prime Minister said that no attention was paid to remote and undeveloped areas before today.
Yesterday, PARC came to the forefront and started the work and took the products from all the remote areas including Gilgit-Baltistan, former FATA, Tharparkar and others and added their value addition. Pakistan imports 90 590 million worth of tea annually, while herbal teas from different parts of the country, including thyme, olive, rosemary and chamomile, are unrivaled. These are superfoods, we will take Pakistan forward by including it in the list of tea exporting countries.
Talking about Gilgit-Baltistan, Chairman PARC told the Prime Minister that the total area of Gilgit-Baltistan is 17.91 million acres. In which the cultivated area is 214,977 acres, 178,406 acres of cultivable barren land. We are working on the value addition of all the herbs in Gilgit-Baltistan as per the vision of the present government and soon the products of these areas will not only be distributed domestically but also exported.
Hatcheries are being set up to develop trout fish and 3 million good breed offspring will be given to farmers every year. The number of trout farms here will be increased to 300. In addition, cow breeding in GB produces less milk. On the direction of the Special Assistant, PARC is going to give 10 good breed bulls to the people there. Sperms are being tested only for Gilgit at National Agricultural Research Center Islamabad so that more milk can be produced by improving GB breed.
He said that in the former FATA, we are working on fruit processing, olives will be cultivated there as much as possible. Fruit processing and value addition will be done. The land of coastal areas of Balochistan and Sindh is best for cotton and palm oil cultivation. In these areas 5 to 8 million acres of land is available for these two crops. Palm oil cultivation from these areas After that, oil imports will come down. All the crops will be grown from brackish water. The Chairman informed the Prime Minister that the products of remote areas are being branded and they will be exported not only to the country but also so that the farmer can get maximum income.