Islamabad: (Parliament Times) Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan has said that USDA and ICARDA were helping Pakistan to conduct a comprehensive research on leaf curl virus and development of Virus resistant varieties of cotton crop in the country.
Bosan, the federal minister, expressed these views while addressing at the occasion of Sustainability Meeting of the Project “Improving Resistance to Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCuV), Supporting Cotton Best Management Practices (BMPs) for Small Farmers†here on Tuesday. The meeting was organized by International Centre for Agricultural Research in dry Areas (ICARDA) Pakistan at a local hotel in Islamabad.
Minister MNFS&R said, “Cotton is one of the most important crops. We are on 4th number in the world in cotton production. Through this project we get the opportunity to work under one umbrella. I hope the team will overcome the leaf curl virus. This project is not just important for Pakistan but for other agricultural countriesâ€.
Appreciating ICARDA for running this project in Pakistan the minister said that since Cotton is the most important crop in Pakistan, a large population of our country was directly attached with this crop.
Dr. Yusuf Zafar (T.I) Chairman PARC said at the occasion that Cotton was his first love in research field. “I know that how hard people struggle to overcome the problems. Virus problem is a challenging problem, so we have to live with it as we are living with bird-flueâ€, he said adding that marvelous efforts were made under this project. “Due to this project outcome, we will have good crop variety in future. This project is at end but we will discuss and continue the project. We are ready to finance some projects because we know that cotton is a major crop of our agriculture sector. Govt. will facilitate by rupees 85 million loans for cotton projectâ€, the Chairman PARC said that if we talk about the history we will see cotton lead with all the big names.
Dr. Abdul Majid, Country Manager, ICARDA said that the project was going to end in June 2017. “We have to look that, how we can develop the awareness of leaf and plants diseases. We have to learn new techniques from the different countries to overcome the disease. Institutional collaboration is needed regarding this aspectâ€. Dr. Brain Scheffler, Research Leader, USDA said that different issues like animal health and cotton project was so successful. “We took initiatives to fight a common threat i.e Cotton Leave Curl Virusâ€, Scheffler said adding that due to this disease 20 to 40% crops’ loss happen in Pakistan. “We built this project for sometime but that is not enough. We plan to work further in Pakistan. The leaf curl virus is on large scale in Pakistan. It is also found in Australia and China tooâ€, he said. “Flies are another big problem and need no passport or visa. This virus is in top twenty threats in US. One of the biggest researches is to look up the virus that how it looks like. We have to look upon strategies that from where the virus comes, how we can overcome it. Pakistani farmers are highly effective by this virus. 13 projects are running on basis of various groups at 6 locations in Pakistanâ€.
Dr. Jodi Scheffler Research Leader, USDA said that there was a dire need to enhance capacity development, confidence building and providing broacher to farmers in English and Urdu. Dr. Khalid Abdullah, Cotton Commissioner said that best part of this project was human resource development. “We get very good results by this project.†he added.
