The agricultural sector in Pakistan, with the country's 70 percent people depending on this sector in one way or other, needs to be fully developed and this objective could be achieved only if we concentrate on agriculture research.

This was stated by chairman PARC, Dr Badruddin Soomro while addressing a meeting of scientists here on Saturday.

The chairman urged the scientists to devote and utilise their capabilities and experiences for developing new crop varieties suitable to environment of different areas and can show better yields.

Self-sufficiency in agriculture sector, he said, would not only cater to local needs but could earn foreign exchange in country through export.

He also lauded the performance reports of the scientists about the ARF research projects and stressed more hard work.

Chaudhry Abdul Hafiz, Director Coordination informed the meeting that 45 Agriculture Research Frued (ARF) projects at a cost of Rs 19.232 million, were approved by PARC for federal and provincial research institutions.

Out of these projects, 27 have been completed with good results and work on 18 projects is in progress hoping further better results in various fields including crops, animal and fish sectors, he added.

Copyright Associated Press of Pakistan, 2004