It is a matter of grave concern that the country is importing as many as 88 percent edible oil of its consumption and oil import bill exceeds 3 billion dollar a year.

It was echoed by speakers at the inaugural session of International Conference titled Soybeans: Challenges and Opportunities arranged by Department of Agronomy under Turkish’s Mevlana Exchange Program at New Senate Hall, UAF. The inaugural session was chaired by Divisional Commissioner Asif Iqbal Ch as Chief Guest while UAF Vice Chancellor Dr Zafar Iqbal Randhawa was the guest of hour. Commissioner Asif Iqbal Chaudhry urged the agriculture experts to introduce viable technologies to promote soybean cultivation coupled with its markets to facilitate the farmers sell their produce and earn profit. It will ultimately increase production of edible oil commodities across the country. He was of the view that that before the participation, Britain rulers introduced canal system in Sandal Bar that turned sand dunes into fertile fields. He said that now it is our responsibility to promote modern agricultural practices in the country so that target of food security and poverty alleviation can be met effectively. He told the audience that the local production of edible oil stands at 0.431 million tones (12%) whereas the total imported edible oils stands at 3.191 million tones (88%). Therefore, in this regard, the total availability of edible oil touched to 3.623 million tones. UAF VC Dr Zafar Iqbal Randhawa said that we would constitute a committee of focused working group comprising young scientists to conduct research and development on soybean. He urged the participants to accept the challenge of modern era and pursue the targets with full devotion. He underscored the need to bring forward some viable solutions of the confronting challenges to make the soybean an attractive crop of the farming community. He added that the tangible steps were needed on the part of the all stakeholders to reduce the edible oil import bill. He also said that we have to build our capacity in the seed technology as the country imports seeds of the different crops worth billions of the rupees. He said that the country was spending one billion dollar annually only on import of Soybean oil. He said that if we become able to develop the market of Soybean for farming community, it will increase the oil production. He said that under the Prime Minster Plant for Pakistan Program, the university and the district government would arrange a mega event by taking all stakeholders forestry department, PHA, Irrigation Department and Univ. community on board to plant thousands of saplings in a minute and set a new record divisional in this regard. Director Oilseed Research Institute Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI) Dr Muhammad Aftab while talking about climatic conditions for growing soybean said that Soybean grows well in the regions having mild climate with low temperature (< 30oC). It should be well drained and fertile loam soils with a pH between 6.0 and 7.5. Talking about role of his institute for the promotion of soybean, he said that they have collection, maintenance and evaluation of Soybean germplasm entries (300 enteries). They were working on breeding program for the development of new soybean varieties having better adaptability for local climate. Senior Professor Faculty of Agriculture Prof. Dr. Asif Tanvir, Conference coordinator Dr. Haroon Zaman Khan, secretary Dr. Muhammad Aslam Malik, and experts from Turkey also spoke on the occasion