Punjab Additional Secretary for Agriculture (Task Force) Benish Fatima has directed agriculture scientists to enhance joint and coordinated efforts to overcome whitefly and pink bollworm, which are denting agricultural sector worth billion of rupees.

Punjab Additional Secretary for Agriculture (Task Force) Benish Fatima has directed agriculture scientists to enhance joint and coordinated efforts to overcome whitefly and pink bollworm, which are denting agricultural sector worth billion of rupees. She chaired a meeting of two projects worth 75 million on management of whitefly and pink boll worm held at the Department of Entomology, University of Agriculture Faisalabad. Whereas, Chairman Entomology and project manager Dr Jalal Arif, Pest Warning and Quality Assurance Director General Khalid Mehmood, and others attended. She said that under the PARB project, UAF, Ayub Research Faisalabad , Cotton Research Institute Multan, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Agriculture University Multan, Nuclear Institute for Biology, Central Cotton Research Institute and NIBGE are working together to overcome the issue. She hoped that the collaborated efforts will bring the tangible results. She said that if it was not overcome, it would not only reduce our production but also inflicted the national economy worth billions of rupees. She stressed upon the need to identify the cause and best methods to overcome the issue. She said that Punjab Government was making all possible measures to flourish the agriculture sector. Khalid Mehmood said that plant protection measures helped increase per hectare yield by protecting crops from diseases and controlling the pests. He said that all the stakeholder have to play their role in the development of the country. He said that Punjab government was making revolutionary steps for the uplift of the agricultural sector in term of subsidy, promotion of modern trend etc. Dr Jalal Arif said that in 2015, the cotton faced the debacle. After it, the university conducted the survey of cotton across the province and developed a report on it as per directives of the government. He hoped that that the projects will help yield improvement, and improvement in input use efficiency and etc.