China’s Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (YAAS) and Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) (designated by the Embassy of Pakistan in Beijing) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote agricultural cooperation between China and Pakistan at an online signing ceremony held in Kunming and Beijing, China Economic Net (CEN) reported on Sunday. While addressing the ceremony, Dr Wang Jihua, president of YAAS, noted that years of collaboration between YAAS and PARC have yielded fruitful results in areas such as wheat, potato, sugarcane, plant protection and banana.

Dr Wang further emphasised, “the effective information sharing in desert locust early warning and prevention and the collaborative research on wheat disease and breeding have become good examples of China-Pakistan sci-tech cooperation.” Highlighting the cooperation results between the two sides, Moin ul Haque, Pakistani Ambassador to China, said that he was more than “happy” to see Chinese experience and expertise have contributed to increased crop yield, plant protection and pest control in Pakistan.

“We are very grateful to China for helping us last year with [the] prevention of locusts and [the] Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Areas of China has also given us special drones to help us in plant protection and pest control,” said Haque. The ambassador envisioned that future cooperation between the two institutions will further enhance the capacities of Pakistani scientists, researchers and institutions, and help boost crop yields by promoting plant protection and pest control.

As part of the MoU, both sides will work to build a joint agricultural research centre (lab) and strengthen cooperation in cross-border agricultural pest research, talent cultivation and scientific and technological training. It is to be noted that the agreement is an extension of a 2014 cooperation project between YAAS and PARC.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP