Pakistan, China join hands to boost agri-cooperation

KUNMING:

China’s Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (YAAS) and Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to promote agricultural cooperation between China and Pakistan at an online signing ceremony held in Kunming and Beijing on Friday.

Addressing the ceremony, Dr Wang Jihua, President of YAAS, noted that years of collaboration between YAAS and PARC have yielded fruitful results in the areas of wheat, potato, sugarcane, banana and plant protection.

Wang emphasised “the effective information sharing in desert locust early warning and prevention and the collaborative research on wheat disease and breeding have become good examples of China-Pakistan sci-tech cooperation.”

Highlighting the outcome of cooperation between the two sides, Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Moinul Haque said that he was more than happy to see Chinese experience and expertise contributed to the increased crop yield, plant protection and pest control in Pakistan.

“We are very grateful to China for helping us last year with the prevention of locusts and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Areas of China has also given us special drones to help us in plant protection and pest control,” said Haque.

The ambassador envisioned that future cooperation between the two institutions will further enhance the capacities of Pakistani scientists, researchers and institutions, and help in boosting crop yields by promoting plant protection and pest control.

As part of the MoU, both sides will work to build a joint agricultural research centre lab and strengthen cooperation in cross-border agricultural pest research, cultivation and scientific and technological training.

It is to be noted that the agreement is an extension of 2014 cooperation between YAAS and PARC.

A couple of months ago, Haque held a virtual meeting with Professor Deng Xiuxin, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and their counterpart from Pakistan, Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad.

“Pakistan is keen to learn from Chinese experience and expertise for modernising the agriculture sector, with focus on corporate farming, new seed development for enhancing crop yield, the introduction of new varieties of agriculture products, establishing agro-industry and setting a cold chain network,” Haque stated in the meeting.