PCSIR experts call for promotion of vertical agriculture farming to increase food production
PESHAWAR (APP): Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR)’s experts and speakers of various departments here Thursday said that adaptation of innovative techniques and vertical agriculture farming was imperative for increasing food production in the country.
These views were expressed during a one day seminar on ‘adaptation of innovative techniques for agro-food production and value addition’ organized by PCSIR here.
Director General, PCSIR, Jahangir Shah said that vertical agriculture farming has made deep inroads in countries including Japan and Pakistan’s with a population of around 240 million could also benefit from it enormously.
He said that agricultural land was reducing due to the high population bulge in the country and vertical farming was the best option to achieve autarky in food. “We can easily obtain about 15,000 ton vegetables and fruits from one kanal’s land through vertical farming procedure,” he said, adding normally 55,000 plants came in one layer and 110,000 in second layer and so on,” he said, adding approximately, vertical plantation were made in nine layers, which means that 495,000 fruits and vegetable plants could be achieved per season after making only 10 million investment,” he said.
PCSIR, Peshawar had introduced vertical farming techniques on five kanal land under a public sector development program (PSDP) project titled ‘research, development and innovation’ under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Islamabad with enormous success.
Dr Jahangir Shah said that utilization of indigenous resources was vital for the development and promotion of industrial and agriculture sectors besides export enhancement, adding the demand driven science and technology research and skilled human resources development through specialized training largely contribute to industrialization and socioeconomic growth of the country.
Faud Ishaq, President Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) while praising services of PCSIR in the country’s development said that Pakistan was blessed with all resources including manpower, hydel, water, sea, rivers, mines and minerals if properly utilized can bring huge economic laurels.
He said that precious water of rivers was being wasted due to lack of dams and suggested adaptation of drip irrigation practices to bring arid land under agriculture cover.
Assuring support to PCSIR, he said that SCCI was ready to promote newly invented products for the benefit of people.
Sirtaj Ahmad Khan, coordinator, Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry suggested strengthening of research, development and innovation (RDI) departments in public sector departments and universities besides increasing the volume of trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan for mutual benefits of both countries.
Dr Sarwat Ismail of PCSIR Islamabad said that today’s seminar was aimed to create awareness among people and farmers about its scope and achievements. Engr Javed Iqbal Khattak, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Executive Officer KP Economic Zones Development and Management Company said that work on agriculture economic zone at Daraband in DI Khan on 3,125 acres was started with assistance of Kuwait’s company, adding 1,000 acres were allocated for processing and 2,125 acres for agriculture produce. He assured full cooperation to PCSIR.
The delegation of Afghanistan, academia, researchers and traders besides scientists attended in large numbers. Later, shields and certificates were distributed among experts and students.
