Industrial development should not be made at the cost of agriculture, said Prof Dr Shigemochi Hirashima, Senior Adviser, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Industrial development should not be made at the cost of agriculture, said Prof Dr Shigemochi Hirashima, Senior Adviser, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). He was addressing the Seminar titled “Issues of Agricultural Development in Comparative Perspective in Japan and South Asia” arranged by the Institute of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Agriculture Faisalabad . The session was chaired by UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan. Prof Dr Shigemochi Hirashima said that regional development should be based on comparative advantage that will reduce the regional disparity. He said that tangible steps are needed for the development as disparity should not go below the sudden level. He said that in the water stressed area, fruits given in Quran such as dates, olive, pomegranate, grapes can be cultivated to take the advantage to earn foreign exchange. He said tangible steps are prerequisite to improve the life of poor farming community. In this regard, pro-poor policies need to be mapped out to alleviate the poverty from the region. He said that in Japan, the agricultural and technical education is being imparted from the primary level. Talking about apricot, Pakistan has the great potential to tap the market of Japan because it is expensive in Japan and can fetch heavy money for Pakistan. UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that small farmers are unable to use to the latest technology due to financial constraints. Around 90 percent of farming community consists of small farmers. He said that the UAF has expedited its outreach programme to transfer the knowledge into goods and services. He said that joint efforts on the part of scientists, extension workers and other stakeholders to increase production in the country. He said that the UAF has developed a fertilizer model to give recommendation about fertilizer usage to the farming community.
