Project launched for usage of modern technologies in agri sector

The US Agency for International Development (USAID), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) launched a new project to expand the use of modern technologies in Pakistan’s agriculture sector.

PARC Chairman Dr Iftikhar Ahmad said that with the strengthening of relations between CIMMYT and PARC, country’s agriculture sector will boost and particularly enhance wheat and maize production during a high level foreign CIMMYT delegation visit to NARC Campus headed by Dr Tom Lumpkin.

The PARC chairman also earmarked site for Establishment of CIMMYT office in Pakistan at NARC Islamabad PARC and the Mexico-based CIMMYT announced the launching of the four-year $30 million Agricultural Innovation Project (AIP) in Islamabad.

The AIP will be implemented in earnest on April 1, and run through March 31, 2017. In this ceremony USAID, Islamabad Mission Director Jack Conlyn, Representative of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research secretary, PARC chairman, CIMMYT Director of Global Wheat, H J Braun, Provincial DGs Agri Research and Extension and their Representatives, VC of Pakistani’s major agri universities, representative of several ongoing USAID projects, USAID Michael Wyzan, Alan Davis Director of EGA at Islamabad and many other eminent Pakistani scientists were present.

The project will also include expertise from sub-awardees International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), World Vegetable Centre (AVRDC), International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), University of California (UC), David and PARC.

Dr Ahmad said that AIP’s overall objective is to promote economic growth by brining more farms, and more acres, under improved technologies and management practices and to increase the productivity and production value of livestock, horticulture, and cereals. The project will foster the creation of a demand-driven, result-oriented agricultural research community and enhance linkages between Pakistan’s agricultural research community, the global community or scientists and Pakistani private sector and civil society.

He further said that the CIMMYT will be the primary implementing partner and prime grantee, managing and taking responsibility for the overall program and overseeing the cereal systems portfolio. The ILRI will manage and support the livestock portfolio, while AVDRC will play a similar role in annual horticulture, IRRI will do for rice, and UC-Davis will have responsibility for human resources development and perennial horticulture. Importantly PARC will be oversee the competitive grants component along with providing leadership in the formation of organization similar to the Punjab Agricultural Research Board in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan.

“Boosting Pakistan’s economy is one of our top assistance priorities. That’s why this project will work to modernize agricultural practices to increase the production and quality of livestock and horticultural goods. This in turn will enhance economic development in the country,” said USAID Country Director Jonathan M Conly at the launch of the project. Innovative technologies, introduced in Pakistan with support from the US Government, spurred the Green Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s. The adoption of improved rice and wheat varieties, combined with strategic policies and investments, led to a doubling of yields and output in those two decades. With investment in research, Pakistan transformed its agricultural sector into a driver for economic growth.

Currently, Pakistan’s agricultural sector is growing at a much slower pace than other sectors. “Pakistan’s agricultural productivity has fallen behind comparable countries with similar agro-ecologies,” said CIMMYT Director General Thomas Lumpkin. “There is a tremendous potential for growth, but we must act now.”

Promoting economic growth is one of the many ways that the United States is helping to create a brighter future for the people of Pakistan. The United States funds large-scale energy projects that will provide electricity to two million households by the end of 2013. The US has rebuilt and renovated 800 schools and has provided scholarships to 12,000 students to attend universities in Pakistan.

And the US is helping to create jobs and increase incomes with programmes that boost agricultural output, build roads, and help entrepreneurs grow their businesses.
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Agriculture needs modernization: FinMin Pun

KIRTIPUR: Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun has said agriculture was a foundation to economic prosperity in Nepal, so it needs modernisation as per the time.

Inaugurating the second general convention and third annual general meeting of Nepal Horticulture Entrepreneurs' Federation here on Saturday, Finance Minister Pun said it was essential to change Nepal's subsistence farming into the commercial farming with the use of modern technology to progress national economy.

The commercialisation of agriculture would reduce unemployment and alleviate poverty, he added. On the occasion, Federation Chairman Khom Prasad Ghimire said Nepal's agriculture was neglected despite geographical specificity and ample productivity.

Farmers were in need of knowledge, skill and technology to modernise their occupation and boost up agricultural productivity, he stressed. Vice-Chairman of the Chitwan Chapter of the Federation, Dhir Prasad Dhital stressed the unity among all entrepreneurs to commercialize and make respected the agriculture.

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Boost needed for agricultural modernization

By Tu Lei (Global Times)

An expert from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the government researchinstitute, yesterday warned that the nation urgently needs to increase its agriculturalmodernization in order for it to keep pace with other sectors.

He Chuanqi, director of the China Center for Modernization Research under the CAS,made his remarks at a press conference on agricultural modernization held in Beijingyesterday.

The yields of grain, rice and wheat in China in 2008 had reached the same level as indeveloped countries. However, China's agricultural labor productivity was about 47percent of the world's average, and just 1 percent of that in the US, He said.

He also mentioned that China's agricultural level in 2008 was about 100 years behindthat of the US, and that China's agricultural labor productivity is about one-tenth that ofits industrial labor productivity.

"Agriculture in China has developed well in some ways, but not so well in others," Hesaid.

According to figures from the US Department of Agriculture, between 2011 and 2012,rice production on average in China was 6.64 tons per hectare, compared with 7.5 tonsin the US.

However, "it is not proper to compare two countries' agricultural level simply viastatistics," Weng Ming, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, toldthe Global Times yesterday.

"The experience of developed countries indicates that industrialization and urbanizationcome first, followed by agricultural modernization," Weng said.

According to Weng, there are certain historic reasons for the backwardness of Chineseagriculture such as the policies of supporting urban development, sometimes to thedisadvantage of rural areas, such as requiring cheap agricultural products.

"But the government has also taken measures to encourage agricultural development,"Weng noted.

In 2005, Premier Wen Jiabao announced in his annual government work report thatChina would exempt farmers from agricultural taxes in 2006, two years ahead ofschedule.

In February this year, the State Council released a development plan for modernagriculture up to 2015.

According to the plan, China will pay attention to transforming the development modelfor agriculture, prioritizing agricultural disaster prevention and ecological environmentprotection, and promoting agricultural technology.

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