Islamabad, (Parliament Times) : Zarai Taraqiati Bank Ltd (ZTBL) and Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) on Tuesday organized national level webinar aimed at uniting agriculture experts, academia, lenders, farmers, and other stakeholders for ensuring food security.
The webinar being first of its kind, is an attempt by ZTBL as financial lender and PARC as research institute to mitigate the challenges faced to farming community in the country.
ZTBL had gathered farmers in its 31 zonal offices across the country under the leadership of President/CEO ZTBL Tahir Yaqoob Bhatti for attending the lectures/research findings of agriculture scientists.
The webinar was addressed by Chairman PARC Dr Ghulam Muhammad Ali besides Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, famers and independent experts.
Management of ZTBL and PARC reached a conclusion after extensive deliberations that there was a dire need to unite stakeholders of agriculture on a common platform for sharing their thoughts on challenges faced to food insecurity in the country.
President ZTBL Tahir Yaqoob Bhatti was of the view that small farmers should be strengthened by equipping them with financial and technical assistance. “Big farmers somehow manage their problems but small farmer solely depends on resources which he lacks. ZTBL will ensure small farmers are properly equipped and informed,” Mr Bhatti said.
Board member ZTBL Zaigham Mehmood Rizvi lamented that despite water scarcity, agriculture water is being wasted in the country for which stakeholders need to join heads to bridge the gap.
He said all agriculture universities should share their research proposals so that overlapping/duplication in research is minimized. “It is time to bring our research work to markets from labs and pilot projects,” he said.
Agriculture scientists delivered lectures to farming community on food security, kitchen gardening, tissue culture technology, making waste lands productive, organic farming, post-harvest management, mountain agriculture, integrated pest management and climate change impacts on agriculture.
ZTBL reiterated its resolve to introduce and finance cheap but effective agriculture machinery for farmers and this is the only way to boost agriculture in the country.
Chairman PARC and its agriculture experts on the occasion assured farmers that the research institute will come up with introducing seeds that could sustain climate challenges and produce better yields.
Series of webinars on the same pattern will be continued for reaching out to maximum number of farmers. Farmers on the occasion lauded ZTBL and PARC for organizing the webinar which they said was an effective tool of making farmers informed about new technologies, weather updates and agriculture-related research works
