Sindh minister calls for bold steps to modernise agriculture
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KARACHI:
Sindh Minister for Agriculture Muhammad Bux Khan Mahar stressed the need for taking bold steps to modernise and improve productivity while creating a more resilient agriculture sector.
He was speaking at the concluding session of the two-day Pakistan Agriculture Coalition's conference and expo held at Karachi Expo Centre on Thursday.
He said agricultural economies across the world are working on improving their agriculture supply chains by making them more efficient, innovative, and enterprising.
"The challenges such as post-harvest losses (an average 40% loss of horticulture crops), limited access to modern storage facilities, and climate change (major biblical-level floods in the last 15 years in Sindh) remain significant hurdles to the development of our agriculture sector," he said.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Country Representative in Pakistan Florence Rolle said the private sector can shape the future of a market-led agricultural market in Pakistan. She said there is a big gap between farmers and investors. Collaboration is not happening in Pakistan as it does in other countries.
Gediz Kaya, CEO of GAIA Climate Turkey, said carbon credits are vital for climate mitigation investments but there is less understanding in Pakistan about carbon credits.
"It's vital for investments in carbon technologies to be bankable for investors and also vital for the agriculture sector, including Small Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). It's really important for a country like Pakistan," said Kaya.
Inteq Zrt Technical Director Balint Pongracz said, "Hungarian agriculture is geared towards maximising volumes, not profitability. The future clearly lies in the adoption of artificial intelligence-based systems, and we are not there yet. Hungary's strategy is to increase digitisation in agriculture on the basis of data management and integration."
Sindh Public-Private Partnership Unit Director Finance Sadiq said private sector investments can improve crops, seed technologies, and advanced irrigation systems to bring in efficiencies.
Trade Development Authority (TDAP) Secretary Sheryar Taj revealed that the authority is organising 27 exhibitions this year under its annual business plan to increase the export potential of the country's agriculture sector.
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