Islamabad: (Parliament Times) 11 th meeting of IPARCC was held at PARC HQs. Dr. M. Azeem Khan, Chairman
PARC presided over the meeting. Dr. Shahid Hameed, Director (Coordination) PARC,
welcomed the distinguished members of the meeting. He briefly described that the main
objective of the august forum is to have greater research coordination among the federal &
provincial research partners and academic institutions to avoid duplication, overlapping and to
develop a concrete agenda of agriculture research at national level.
Chairman PARC appraised the house that PARC, has a broad mandate to coordinate
research among federal, provincial and higher education agencies on one side and with
international agencies (CGIAR) on another. PARC operates 12 satellite institutes across the
country. He briefed the house regarding the new initiatives in agriculture and described that
present government has launched mega projects with worth of Rs. 310 Billion focused on wheat,
rice & sugarcane inclusive enhancing command area of small and mini dams in barani areas,
water conservation in barani areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. These initiatives will play key role
in promoting agriculture, economic development, job growth, infrastructure improvements,
technological innovation, and quality of life in rural area of Pakistan.
He further elaborated that on overcoming the emerging issues, challenges and realizing
the opportunities for prosperity in rural area required action on multiple fronts, including
promoting economic development, advancing Innovation and Technology, ensuring a well
trained and productive work force and improving the quality of life in rural communities. He said
that the success depends, in large part on promoting two key drivers of long term growth and
prosperity; broad-based productivity growth in the rural economy and connectivity of rural
people to each other, to urban areas and to rest of the world.
National Food Policy, Promotion & Maximization of Pulses, Promotion of production
deficit crops (tomato, onion and oilseed) and Agriculture Coordinated Program is discussed in
meeting. The meeting was attended by Vice Chancellor’s of agriculture universities, reps of
Provincial / Gilgit Baltistan Agriculture Livestock and Federal & Provincial planning
departments. The forum emphasized that government should take up fast steps for making
legislation in agriculture sector.
