STAFF REPORT IBD: Agricultural experts have stressed the need for making Pesticide Residue Monitoring System operational in the country in order to control the indiscriminate use of pesticides on exportable horticulture as well as other national crops.

“The pesticide residue monitoring system has initially been approved by the federal government but no resource allocation has been done for it in order to make it effective and operational,” Dr. Iftikhar Ahmed, Senior Advisor on Programme Development FAO, said at a recently held seminar on Pesticides Residues in Exportable Horticulture Crops.

During the seminar, Director General, PARC, Mubarik Ahmad, said that the uncontrolled use of pesticides has imposed not only tremendous economical losses but also unacceptable hazards to human health.

He said the country exports a variety of fruits including mango, dates and citrus fruits but the indiscriminate use of pesticides on these commodities is going to threaten the exports.

He said despite having great potential in Pakistan to produce quality fruits in a large quantity, the country is not listed among the worlds top ten countries of fruits exporters mainly due to the uncontrolled application of pesticides.

Itrat Rasool Malhi, representative from UNIDO, while speaking on the occasion, said that frequent rejection of agriculture export consignments due to non-compliance of Special Programme for Strengthening (SPS) management results into huge losss of foreign exchange earnings.

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