40 agricultural projects worth Rs900m approved

LAHORE: The scope of agricultural research should be extended to farmers and the general public so that they can benefit from it. Agricultural projects should be designed according to market and commercial scale demand.

These views were expressed by provincial minister for industries SM Tanvir while presiding over the 48th meeting of Punjab Agricultural Research Board. Secretary Agriculture Punjab Iftikhar Ali Sahoo, MNS Agriculture University, Multan Vice-Chancellor Dr Asif Ali and other members also participated in the meeting.

On this occasion, PARB Chief Executive Dr Abid Mehmood presented the agenda of the meeting and briefed about 40 new projects related to agriculture, livestock and fisheries.

On this occasion, the minister said that there is a need to implement such an agricultural project on a commercial scale which will meet the demand of the people and stabilise the prices. The meeting approved 40 new agricultural projects worth Rs900 million in consultation with other board members. On this occasion, Secretary Agriculture, Punjab Iftikhar Ali Sahoo said that the purpose of research should not be ‘research for research’ but should be the preparation of such types of new varieties of crops which can increase the profit of the farmers on a commercial scale and bring relief to the people. He also directed to consider the existing agricultural research while developing hybrid varieties of sunflower. He further said that research should be purposeful and in this context, agricultural scientists need to be taken on board by foreign institutions.

SM Tanvir also directed PARB Chief Executive Dr Abid Mahmood to submit a comprehensive report on the performance of PARB and set up a special committee to scrutinise the future projects.