Australia Grants $15M to Help Improve Groundwater Management in Pakistan

The Australian government has helped launched an AUD$15 million Water Programme to help the Pakistan Government’s efforts in developing a National Water Commission and National Water Policy.

Australian High Commissioner Margaret Adamson said that “Australia has more than one thousand companies which can provide advice and technologies in this critical sector.”

Three projects to improve groundwater management in agriculture, implemented by the Australian Government’s Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), will also be included in the programme.

On its website, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said: “Pakistan’s access to a strong and healthy workforce is affected by high malnutrition rates, poor water and sanitation, and maternal and child health issues.”

Between 2015-2016, Australia sent $55.8 million in foreign aid to Pakistan although this decreased to $47 million between 2016-2017.

Also included in the Water Programme is the Australian Government’s 12-year Indus Sustainable Development Investment Portfolio (SDIP), which was mapping the Indus Basin to establish current and future needs.

Dr Muhammad Ashraf, chairman of the Pakistan Council for Water Research in Water (PCRWR), said: “The Australian Water Program for Pakistan is distinctive in its nature as it is covering three major aspects in water resources management; enhance farmer’s water management skills by developing new knowledge dissemination methods; participatory irrigation management; and improving groundwater management through capacity building of farmers and researchers.”

As well as PCRWR and ACIAR, organisations from both countries will work together in the programme, including the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), together with the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC).

Source: Water World

Sudden Price Hike Coincides with PPA’s Costly Media Drive

Chicken prices have risen to Rs350 a kilogram and that of boneless meat to Rs600 per kg. Retailers used to maintain a difference of at least Rs100 per kg in prices of live bird and its meat prices, but now they have stopped following the practice due to surging demand.

Two kinds of retail rates prevail in the market. Some retailers, who were previously selling live bird for Rs190 and meat for Rs290 per kg, have raised prices to Rs200 and Rs300-320, respectively. The prices of boneless meat have increased to Rs500-520 and that of golden meat to Rs400-420 per kg.

However, another category of retailers claiming high quality have increased rates of live bird to Rs210-220 per kg from Rs200, and that of boneless meat and golden meat to Rs580-600 and Rs480 per kg.

Market sources said that by raising prices, people belonging to the Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) were recovering the cost incurred on a print media campaign that was run in the middle of February to reject allegations leveled by the All Pakistan Solvent Extractors’ Association (APSEA) that soya bean meal imported from India and other countries might not be halal. 

Source: Dawn

Pakistan to export hybrid rice seed to Philippines

Pakistan has struck an unprecedented deal with Philippines for the export of hybrid rice seed to the Southeast Asian nation, an industry official said on Thursday.

  “Philippines has decided to import hybrid rice seed from Pakistan because the crop raised form this variety is less labor intensive compared to Irri,  which is currently being cultivated in the Southeast Asian country,” Shahrukh Malik, executive at Guard Agricultural Research & Services told journalists in a media briefing.

“For the first time in the history of the country, domestically developed hybrid seed will be traded to a foreign country. Philippines needs the seed for 2018 crop and we have already increased the production area to 900 acres to meet the demand.”

He informed the journalists that Philippines have over 137,000 varieties of Irri but being a labor intensive crop, the archipelago in the southwestern Pacific is looking for a hybrid variety. “The climate in which hybrid rice seeds are bred in Sindh is similar to that of Philippines. Their experts assayed the procedure of seed production thoroughly at our farms before cutting a deal with us,” Malik disclosed.

The Guard rice research executive observed the export of hybrid rice seed will be a milestone in the country’s rice sector and will open new opportunities in the international market apart from giving local research and development a fresh impetus.

“We have also developed a basmati hybrid seed. The field trials are already underway. It’s expected to be commercially available by 2018,” he said.  Replying to a question, he said unfortunately lack of public private sector partnership is hindering the progress of seed development in Pakistan.

“Public sector has its own inherited problems, while the private sector conducts research with commercial result-oriented focus. Thus the pace of private sector is fast compared to the public,” Malik said.

He continued that there’s a yawning trust deficit between the public and private sector researchers and it needs to end through coordinative initiatives. “Due to this deficit, the authorities take too long to green-signal a newly developed seed for commercial launch, hurting private sector growth,” he asserted.

Moving forward, he explained that at least 45 companies are importing hybrid seeds, including the top five firms of the world, but none of them is producing hybrid seeds in Pakistan, which is an obstacle in the transfer of technology to the country.

“The government shall bind those companies to produce at least 20 percent of the total quantity of imported seeds in Pakistan,” he suggested adding it will revolutionise the seed development and agriculture sector.

Summarizing the growth of the hybrid rice in Pakistan, Malik told the media that during 2008-09, area under Irri cultivation was 560,000 hectares but reduced to 423,000 hectares in 2014-15, while area under hybrid cultivation was only 84000 hectares, which increased to 302000 hectares in 2014-15.

“Similarly, in 2008-09, Irri production was recorded at 19,49,000 tons but it decreased to 11,61,000 tons in 2014-15, while hybrid rice production, which stood at 4,54,000 tons in 2008-09, jumped to 14,16,000 tons during 2014-15,” he added.

Continuing his talk, he said the aforementioned numbers also reflected in the exports as total quantity of the basmati rice sold overseas stood at 11,37,943 tons in 2010-11 but reduced to 676630 in 2014-15, while non-basmati export, which was logged at 25,63,664 in 2010-11, increased to 3054680 tons in 2014-15.

“A substantial increase in hybrid production and exports of non-basmati rice export is encouraging for the sector,” Malik said.

Source: The News