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PESHAWAR, Dec 28 (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 (DG), PCSIR, Jahangir Shah said that vertical agriculture farming has made deep inroads in countries including Japan and Pakistan 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 the vertical farming procedure,” he said, adding normally 55,000 plants came in one layer and 110,000 in the second layer and so on.
He said that approximately, the vertical plantation was 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 introduced vertical farming techniques on five kanal lands 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 socio-economic growth of the country.
Faud Ishaq, President of Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) while praising the 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 the lack of dams and suggested adaptation of drip irrigation practices to bring arid land under agricultural 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 of the 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 the mutual benefit of both countries.
Dr Sarwat Ismail of PCSIR Islamabad said that today’s seminar was aimed at creating 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 the agriculture economic zone at Daraband in DI Khan on 3,125 acres was started with the assistance of Kuwait’s company, adding 1,000 acres were allocated for processing and 2,125 acres for agriculture produce. He assured full cooperation with 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.