ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) under a special project of ‘Skill Development of the Farmers of Balochistan’ would train 1000 farmers to improve agriculture productivity on sustained basis in the province.
Addressing concluding ceremony of first batch of the training course of SDFB here on Monday, Director General, National Agriculture Research Centre (NARC), Dr. Muhammad Azeem Khan said, the objective of the programme is to improve agricultural productivity on sustained basis with focus on new knowledge, innovations, ideas and skills for food security in the region and improvement of livelihood of Baluchistan farming community.
He said, four major need based areas of agriculture including water conservation, vegetable and fruit production and value addition, major crops and livestock production would be focused during the training.
He said PARC and NARC has trained 103 farmers in the first batch of one month training, farmers from 23 districts of Balochistan participated in it.
Dr. Azeem Khan said that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a big opportunity for Pakistan development, adding, China is a half world.
Various food processing zones will be set up in Balochistan province, he said adding, Balochistan is future for agriculture development in Pakistan and olive going to become industry in Pakistan.
He said, PARC is also focusing its research to increase onion and tomato production on large scale basis in the country.
He said that PARC and NARC are also working on various solar projects to dry and preserve various agri products.
PARC is supporting government in its efforts to provide 30,000 solar systems to farm families of remote areas especially for solar water pumping for agriculture use and also highlighted the scope of cash crop of Zafran cultivation in Balochistan.
He urged the participants to practice new knowledge which they learned at NARC during training and share with other farmers of their region to increase production.
Source: APP
