Pakistan is losing as many as 200 million dollar annually because of fruit fly resulting in low productivity and a hurdle for the export of agricultural produces.

Pakistan is losing as many as 200 million dollar annually because of fruit fly resulting in low productivity and a hurdle for the export of agricultural produces. This was echoed at a meeting on "development of national action plan for fruit fly management" arranged by the Department of Entomology, University of Agriculture Faisalabad. The meeting was presided over by UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan. The meeting also decided to set up a working group to fight with the outbreak of fruit fly. The group will consist of academia, industry, NGOs, farmers, exporters and extension workers in order to execute the fruit fly action plan and guidelines The Vice Chancellor said that the contamination of fruits with pesticide residue and other toxicants is leading rejections of agro based export consignments resulting into huge loses of foreign exchange earnings. He said that the fruit fly was an emerging threat to the export of fruits and vegetables in Pakistan after India. He said that tangible steps and joint efforts on the part of academia, researchers, industry and other stakeholders were imperative to cope with the situation. He said that strong academia and industry linkages are prerequisite to deal with issue which is damaging our agricultural productivity. Prof Dr Jalal Arif, Chairman Department of Entomology and Principal Officer Public Relations and Publications, said that usage of pesticides globally, valued at $45 billion in 2012 whereas global pesticide market to be worth $65 billion by 2017. In the United States, pesticide sales were approximately $12.5 billion at the user level, which accounted for 32% of the nearly $40 billion world market. He said 11 spices of fruit fly had been reported to cause to the loss to carious fruits and vegetables in Pakistan. He said that our exports consignment are being rejected in the international market during to non compliance of food safety and quality issues. Dr Tausef-ul-Haq from Syngenta said that the working group will work initially on the vegetables and crops which are most affected by the fruit fly. He hoped that the groups will come up with the tangible policy suggestions. Dr Taufiq Sadique from Bayer Pakistan said overcoming the fruit fly was the real challenge. He said that initially we will select the most affected fruit and vegetable damaged by fruit fly to overcome the losses. Dr Liaquat Hayat from Ali Akbar Group called for expediting the joints efforts for the development of the agricultural sector which is considered backbone of our economy. Dr Mansoor-ul-Hassan said the meeting provides a platform to sit together and map out a plan for defeating the fruit fly from the country. Dr Khalid Hamid from Tara Group, Amir Bashir FMC, Abdul Hamid , Irfan Jamil from Arista, Dr Sohail Ahmad, Dr Waseem Akram, Dr Hamid Bashir, Dr Rashid Rasul, Dr Ahsan Khan, Dr Dildar Gogi, Dr Muhammad Arshad, Dr Ahmad Nawaz, Dr Fatima Mustafa, Dr Khurram Zia, Dr Muhammad Sufyan, Dr Jam Nazir, Dr Bilal Saeed and other notables also attended the meeting.