The National Agricultural Research Center will set up an organic agriculture support facility in addition to establishing a local certification body with worldwide recognition, according to Chairman of Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) Dr Ghulam Muhammad Ali. He was speaking at the Organic Agriculture Policy Review Workshop, sponsored by the Laudes Foundation and organised by the CABI Regional Bioscience Centre Pakistan. Dr. Ali emphasised the importance of increasing agricultural exports because organic products are more valuable in international markets.

The workshop's main goal was to gather all the players in organic agriculture together under the auspices of the "Building the Policy Ecosystem for Organic Production Landscape in Pakistan" initiative in order to create a national organic agriculture policy.In his remarks, the PARC chairman praised the event's organisers and discussed the necessity and value of organic agriculture for Pakistan. Several types of agriculture are currently practised organically in Pakistan, but it still requires technical direction from competent authorities, he added.

He emphasised the potential for organic farming in Balochistan and the importance of taking action to support and develop it there in order to foster social and economic progress.Ministry of National Food Security and Research's Advisor, Dr. Akmal Siddique, underlined the necessity for time-bound, concrete, quantifiable, and attainable policy solutions. According to him, his ministry would issue a directive to institutions directing them to set up a section where research experts will create individual farms for the production of their crops in accordance with organic principles. The Balochistan Agriculture Department was praised for pioneering organic agriculture in Pakistan by Dr Yousaf Zafar, a former chairman of PARC and senior advisor/consultant to CABI. Pakistan is now on the map for certified organic cotton as of 2019, he added.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk