Staff Report ISB: A meeting was held in Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) aiming at promotion of soybean crop and highlighting its advantages. It was decided that soybean crop will be cultivated on 1000 acres of area during current season for seed multiplication at National Agricultural Research Center (NARC) and farmers fields through contract farming in Sargodha, Chakwal, Attock and Northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the collaboration of other national partners.
The meeting was presided by Seerat Asghar, Federal Secretary, Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFSR); while addressing in the meeting she urged all stakeholders including government, public and private sector organizations working in agri sector, farmers community, and other exponentials of agricultural sector to work collectively for the betterment of the sector because in Pakistan agriculture contributes about 24 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and has direct impact on economic growth of the country.
Dr. Azeem Khalid, Director General NARC was also present on the occasion. He said that soybean had broader genetic diversity that offers multiple uses, so in future new varieties of soybean with enhanced yield potential and other attributes may be developed. Dr. Azeem also stressed to strengthen the linkages between public and private sector and said that it was imperative for agri sector development.
Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad, Chairman PARC apprised that procurement of the soybean produced from farmers must be ensured in order to benefit the local producer.
He proposed that this could be possible by agreement between farmers, NRSP, Lok Sanjh, PATCO and Solvent industry because in past, the reason of decline in soybean area was ineffective marketing system and by reversing the situation through better marketing strategy, valuable outcomes could be yielded.
The notable participants of meeting included Dr. M. Shahid Masood, Member Plant Sciences of PARC, Dr. Muhammad Amjad, National Coordinator (Oilseeds) PARC, Dr. Bashir Mahmood Bhatti, Secretary General of Pakistan Poultry Association.
The stakeholders present from different organizations in the meeting affirmed their resolve and full cooperation in order to promote the indigenous soybean so to reduce the dependence on imported one which will subsequently flourish the soybean producers and also inflict considerable saving to the national exchequer.