It is a matter of grave concern that despite the fact of being agrarian country, Pakistan is spending Rs 110 billion on the import of pulses a year.

It was stated by University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Ashraf during a meeting with Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) team comprised University of Queensland Australia Dr Rajendra Adhikari, and ACIAR Country Manager Pakistan Munawar Raza Kazmi. UAF Registrar Tariq Saeed, UAF Institute of Business Management Director Dr Khalid Mushtaq, Dr Mubashir Mehdi, Dr Burhan Ahmad and others attended. The meeting discussed ACIAR ongoing project titled “developing competitive and inclusive value chains of pulses in Pakistan”. Dr Muhammad Ashraf called for increasing cultivation of protein rich pulses to reduce the import bill. He said that it was unfortunate that the we were focusing on five crops only where land, climate and ecosystem of the homeland is fit for growing many crops. He said that farmers of pulses were going through various problems for which effective measures were needed to raise their income and boost pulses productivity and cultivation area. He told that 90 percent of farming community was small farmers. He said we have to raise the awareness about latest techniques and provide low prices machinery for sustainability in the agriculture sector . Dr Rajendra Adhikari said that that pulses were protein rich and Australia was included in exporting countries for pulses. He said that the project of pulses would come up fruitful result to address the challenges of the pulses. Dr Munawar Kazmi said two decades ago, the country was sufficient in pulses productivity . He said that levy of export tax of 35 percent on import of pulses at the beginning of this century put a major dent. He added that the farmers were ignoring this important crop which has a lot of potential. He said that they were amking all out efforts to address this issue. Dr Khalid Mushtaq said that he project was developed keeping present situation of pulses and the scope of these crops in view. There activities were meant to overcome the constraints in the promotion. He said that it will help increase the productivity of mung, mash, lentil and chickpea crops in the country. Dr Mubashir Mehndi said the country was producing around 500,000 tonnes of major pulses like chickpea, lentil, mung and mash beans. The rest of these pulses requirement was being met by importing. Dr Burhan Ahmad said that the country is a net importer of pulses, and its import bill has increased to the alarming level. He said that these are not only an important source of protein but also a cheap source of energy.