Islamabad: (Parliament Times) : 43rd Meeting of National Assembly Standing Committee on National Food Security & Research (NFSR) was held at National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad. Malik Shakir Bashir Awan, Chairman, NA Standing Committee on NFSR presided over the meeting.
The meeting was started with the recitation of Holy Quran. The committee confirmed the minutes of previous meeting of the committee held on 1st February, 2018. Comprehensive Report / implementation status of the previous recommendations of the Committee was also included in the agenda item of the Committee.
“The National Food Safety, Animal and Plant Health Regulatory Authority Bill 2017” was also considered in the meeting of the Committee. Scrutiny of budgetary proposals of Ministry of National Food Security & Research relating to the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) for the year 2018-19 was also discussed.
Speaking on the occasion, Malik Shakir Bashir Awan said that Pakistan having huge potential in agriculture field which needed to be exploited for the progress of the country. Appreciating the PARC initiatives for agriculture development, he said that his committee would take every possible step to help promote PARC and consequently agriculture research culture. On the occasion, Awan identified several areas where PARC can focus its research activities and that would ultimately result in the development of agriculture sector all across the country, adding that the country having potential and can perform better.
Dr. Yusuf Zafar, Chairman, PARC said that the government should give agriculture a top priority as it is the backbone of country’s economy adding this sector not only absorbs major labour force but also works as backup industry for several other industries. He said that as compared to other regional countries, government spending on agriculture was minimum in Pakistan and despite this, the agriculture sector is producing promising results.
