AGL 39.71 Decreased By ▼ -0.42 (-1.05%)
AIRLINK 189.85 Increased By ▲ 0.42 (0.22%)
BOP 9.83 Decreased By ▼ -0.51 (-4.93%)
CNERGY 7.01 Decreased By ▼ -0.20 (-2.77%)
DCL 10.24 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.29%)
DFML 41.31 Decreased By ▼ -0.49 (-1.17%)
DGKC 105.99 Decreased By ▼ -2.64 (-2.43%)
FCCL 37.72 Decreased By ▼ -0.87 (-2.25%)
FFBL 93.41 Increased By ▲ 3.50 (3.89%)
FFL 15.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.13%)
HUBC 122.30 Decreased By ▼ -0.93 (-0.75%)
HUMNL 14.31 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-0.97%)
KEL 6.32 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.32%)
KOSM 8.12 Decreased By ▼ -0.28 (-3.33%)
MLCF 48.78 Decreased By ▼ -0.69 (-1.39%)
NBP 72.31 Decreased By ▼ -2.51 (-3.35%)
OGDC 222.95 Increased By ▲ 9.54 (4.47%)
PAEL 33.62 Increased By ▲ 0.63 (1.91%)
PIBTL 9.67 Increased By ▲ 0.60 (6.62%)
PPL 201.45 Increased By ▲ 1.52 (0.76%)
PRL 33.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.75 (-2.17%)
PTC 26.59 Decreased By ▼ -0.62 (-2.28%)
SEARL 116.87 Decreased By ▼ -1.32 (-1.12%)
TELE 9.63 Decreased By ▼ -0.25 (-2.53%)
TOMCL 36.61 Increased By ▲ 1.19 (3.36%)
TPLP 11.95 Decreased By ▼ -0.62 (-4.93%)
TREET 24.49 Increased By ▲ 2.20 (9.87%)
TRG 61.36 Increased By ▲ 0.46 (0.76%)
UNITY 36.06 Decreased By ▼ -0.63 (-1.72%)
WTL 1.79 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BR100 12,150 Decreased By -15.1 (-0.12%)
BR30 38,093 Increased By 312.6 (0.83%)
KSE100 114,302 Increased By 121.3 (0.11%)
KSE30 35,805 Increased By 104.1 (0.29%)

KARACHI: The first Agri-Connections Event 2023 will be held on March 16 in Karachi, to be organised by the Pakistan Agricultural Coalition (PAC) and aimed at connecting Pakistan’s agriculture sector to industry, finance, government and the world.

Strategy Adviser of PAC Kazim Saeed on Monday informed the media that Rs1 billion is lost annually due to the use of poor seeds and outdated methods.

He said that annual production of corn, wheat and rice is worth $12 billion, of which $1 billion a year is lost due to supply chain and storage problems. “PAC believes that Pakistan’s agriculture must become private sector-led, technology-driven, entrepreneurial and globally competitive,” he added.

This is the first edition of PAC’s annual conference and exhibition in which different sessions will be held that include Pakistan's agriculture and opportunities in the global economy; Investment opportunities in agriculture; Increasing growers' profitability; Sustainable agriculture and climate change; Access to capital; Maize for poultry, dairy (and exports?); Investment for import substitution; Reversing Pakistan's trade deficit through agri-commodities; and Tech and the future of agriculture.

PAC is sponsored by Pakistan’s leading business groups for developing commercially scalable business models for growth in Pakistan's agriculture sector.

Kazim said that PAC’s mission is to drive this transformation with concerted action from key stakeholders: growers, federal and provincial governments, the private sector (such as agri-businesses & industry), development partners, financial institutions, and academia and consumer groups.

Some of the flagship projects of PAC include establishment of Pakistan’s first electronic warehouse receipts regime. This regime is bringing financial access to farmers by collateralizing commodities for loans, and also creating strong incentives for crop testing, grading, and standardization, proper storage, reduction in post-harvest losses, and preservation of crop quality for exports. Over three seasons, two billion rupees worth of warehouse receipts have been issued so far.

PAC had also convinced USAID to fund a feasibility study on grain storages to attract investment in this important segment of the agri-economy. The study was conducted in August-December 2020 by multiple experts and was led by PAC’s Kazim Saeed and its recommendations and financial model are being actively used to support advocacy work for the regime and to convince agri-sector stakeholders to invest in storages.

PAC has also worked with the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) to develop and implement a multi-year program for increasing Pakistan’s rice exports by introducing mechanization in rice cultivation. The aims of the project include improving farm productivity, cutting post-harvest losses (15-20%) and also significantly increasing rice exports over the next few years.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023

Comments

Comments are closed.

KU Mar 07, 2023 12:29pm
Yet another hot air balloon plan for the agriculture, like previous ones this one shall too not materialize or will benefit only a select few. Representation of farmers, who feed Pakistan, at these events is minimal and their suggestions on what they need is never heeded. Some how, the heavily subsidized agri-models of the US and EU are never mentioned at these events, and the focus always falls on sustainable farming, which actually translates to subsistance farming, The focus is always on sugarcane, rice and cotton, while pulses, wheat, oil seeds, vegetables and fruit are not significant for our agri-experts. We import over $1 billion worth of eatables that can be grown in our country, but poor seed quality, ineffective fertilizers and inefficient water usage, and high production cost is a disadvantage to the whole agriculture sector. Just give the farmers affordable means and tools to cultivate, they can bring green revolution in a few years. Alternatively, good luck with a non-starter grand plan, and we will wait for another event in a couple of years that will profess another grand plan for agriculture in Pakistan.
thumb_up Recommended (0)