BEIJING, Nov. 19th (China Economic Net)— “In this era, we are all facing climate change issues. Pakistan needs to gain continued genetic improvement in crop varieties, which is vital to ensure food security. Genetic pool and bio-technology collaboration between China and Pakistan will help us in a great way”, said chairman of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), Dr. Muhammad Azeemn Khan at a webinar on China-Pakistan Agricultural Cooperation and Prospects on November 19, 2020.

Under CPEC, the webinar was hosted by China Economic Net, in collaboration with the Institute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies (IPDS) and The Express Tribune, with the guidance of the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan and the Pakistani Embassy in China.

During the webinar, Chairman of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), Dr. Muhammad Azeemn Khan shared PARC’s achievements on promoting and coordinating agricultural research activities with international partners, and its vision on cooperation potentials between China and Pakistan.

“The government of China and Pakistan have been actively cooperating in the agriculture sector, and we have a very long history of such cooperation. We’ve really excelled in a few areas under such cooperation, and had implanted them practically, now we are benefiting through it.”Dr. Muhammad Azeemn Khan said during the webinar.

On the purpose of promoting bilateral agricultural R&D activities between China and Pakistan, multiple MoUs / agreements were signed between PARC and Chinese provincial and national level agricultural companies and academies. Since then, news of success kept pouring in.

In collaboration with CAAS, P.R. China, around 592 entries from China’s Green Super Rice genome project were tested in Pakistan and now 25 entries are in multi-location trials.

Moreover, Pakistan entered into export regimes with the introduction of larger shelf life varieties of Banana provided by China. Two million banana plants produced with tissue culture technology provided to farmers in Sindh.

Dr. Muhammad Azeemn Khan further expressed PARC’s vision of cooperation potentials between China and Pakistan.

He stated that impressive progress has been made by China in hybrid seed production technology of various fields and horticultural crops. Seed yield has been improved by using modern breeding and production that have reduced the cost of seed production. Thus, PARC would be interested in transfer of hybrid seed production technology for its indigenization through training and involvement of foreign experts.

While illustrating cooperative potentials on genetic engineering, the chairman said: “The development of modern agricultural biotechnology has laid a scientific foundation for establishing rapid, accurate and efficient breeding techniques. Marker assisted selection (MAS), genome selection, designer breeding by molecular module and gene editing can directly improve, select and assemble the target genes. We desperately wish for collaboration in such areas, because in this era, we are all facing climate change issues. Pakistan needs to gain continued genetic improvement in crop varieties which is vital to ensure food security. Genetic pool and bio technology collaboration will help us in a great way.”

Additionally, PARC seeks sharing of Chinese experiences in terms of increased crop productivity through increased resource use efficiency and the protection of environmental quality, noting that agricultural growth in China has accelerated remarkably, and most of this growth has been driven by increased yield per unit area rather than by expansion of the cultivated area.