Horticulture exports could reach magic figure of $7bn KARACHI: Exports of horticulture products could grow to iconic proportions, reaching the magic figure of seven billion dollars in 10 years provided we vigorously pursue research and development (R&D) in this area. Fruits and vegetables grown in the country have great potential which need to be harnessed to capture hungry world markets where Pakistani mangoes and kinnow, in particular, are in great demand. How best R&D should be applied and pursued to be able to extract maximum benefits from the exports of horticulture products was the one point agenda at a meeting held between All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association (PFVA) and Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam (SAU-TJM) at Tandojam last week. Continuing enthusiastic pursuance of his vision of R&D, Chairman, PFVA, Waheed Ahmed having held meetings with agriculture educational institutions and organisations, i.e. University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Department of Agriculture – University of Karachi and the PCSIR, it was his fourth comprehensive meeting with Vice Chancellor A Q Moughal and his team at the SAU-TJM. The VC TJM acknowledged that it was first ever visit of it’s kind from chairman of an “Agri-related “organisation (PFVA) which simply reflected keen desire on the part of PFVA to acquire knowledge of what all has been done by such agriculture educational institutions in the field of Research & Development related to fruits & vegetables. He then invited the PFVA Chairman to brief him and his team about the objective of his visit to SAU–TJM and what he exactly desired from the University in attainment of PFVA’s ultimate objective of export enhancement. Waheed Ahmed said he strongly desired that PFVA played a very prominent and distinguished role in the enhancement of exports and to achieve that it was imperative that the significance of Research & Development be realised by the growers, in particular, being the main stakeholder. “It is however, unfortunate that the growers are least pushed about importance of R&D, future key factor which just cannot be ignored any longer to ensure, Pakistan remains as an exporting country of fruit and vegetable instead of an importing country” “I have been traveling extensively abroad and been to 40 different countries of the world and my ultimate conclusion is that our survival in future would greatly depends how seriously we take R&D for our agriculture sector. Even if go for an aggressive marketing, we are then confronted with low production, poor quality, limited varieties and disease issues, just to highlight a few,” he said. Though, he said “we proudly claim Pakistan to be an agriculture country but it’s highly disappointing and demoralizing that we have been and are importing numerous argri- produce e. g. onion, tomato, banana, apples etc. Leaving aside a few special circumstances like flood, the main cause of import of fruits and vegetables is our non-serious attitude towards R&D coupled with our inherent national characteristic to think of resolving a problem only when it gets out of proportion. Why shall we let the “wave of issues” to turn into “tsunami” and do not take corrective measures to avert that terrible situation? He questioned. Despite all un-favourable conditions and lack of required degree of support from the government, the exporters of PFVA have shown phenomenal growth of 19 percent in year 2012 posting the revenue figure to USD 625 million but this impressive consistency in growth may not be maintained in future if R&D is not given due importance it deserves. “When I stretch my imagination over next 10 years span, I see future of this industry bleak if current issues are not tackled through R&D,” he regretted. Waheed Ahmed said that “fruit fly” in mango and “blemish issue” in Kinnow had already started posing serious threats to the exporters and inflicted heavy financial losses on the industry. Kinnow in the international markets is surviving only because of its relatively low price and not due to its quality. This fruit would certainly be out of the global markets if quality issues through R&D are not addressed while other countries mange to bring the price of their Kinnow down to our current level maintaining quality as well. Similarly if the growers do not seriously practice good agriculture practices (GAP), mango issue of fruit fly and deterioration in quality is unlikely to be resolved and may badly affect export of “King of Fruits” in future. That sector (Fruits & Vegetables) had tremendous potential, he said “and my dream of enhancing current export revenue into seven billion dollars can certainly be translated into reality if we focus our attention to R&D right from now”. There is a dire need that the growers must be made aware about the importance of R&D which is in fact in their own advantage in improving quality and yield. They shall not wait for the “disaster” which is waiting down the drain and hence they should gear up to neutralize it by displaying element of seriousness in their thoughts about R&D. Sharing their concerns with the exporters and frequent communication is yet another requirement to keep pace together for enhancement of exports. Since the University is in constant touch with the growers, “we look forward to you for playing an active role in this context to educate the growers since all problems commence from the “Trees”, he said. R&D is also required to address issues of value-added products such as mango pulp, tomato paste and apple concentrate which is billion dollars’ industry, India having pronounced share of the global market while we have negligible. He said: we now obviously have two choices – either become an importing country by turning blind eyes towards the existing issues already spelled out, or adopt a determined and courageous approach to get issues resolved through R&D. Just imagine, fruits and vegetables are coming from distant countries like US, Chile and Brazil to Dubai indicating that despite longer transit time the products are still sold in the local market due to their quality and longer shelf life whereas with lesser transit time of just 2-3 days, our products get deteriorated due to low quality hence we are definitely required to think how to enhance shelf life through improvement in quality, again an area requiring attention of the growers, he said. The chairman PFVA shared his view that the trend in the world was switching towards “organic produce” though expensive but due to its superior quality, it was in great demand. “Use of pesticide and fertilizer by the growers has badly affected quality and reverting to “organic” method of cultivation would assist us in improvement of quality of produce though the cost would be higher but by enhancing yield / acre through R & D we can manage to bring the cost down to a reasonable degree to be competitive in the global market.” The chairman assured that the PFVA would extend incentive to the growers if they improve the quality of produce as per desire of the exporters. PFVA, he said, looked forward to the University in playing active role in implementation of its concept of R&D and bridge the gap between the growers and exporters. The VC, Dr A Q Mughal appreciated detailed briefing and vision of the Chairman PFVA and assured all possible assistance from the University in that contest. Sindh Agriculture University, he said was the only university in Sindh to cater agriculture education and human resource development needs of the province. As a premier agricultural institution, it has made significant contribution in manpower development and produced more than 25,000 graduates and postgraduates since its establishment in 1977. These graduates are actively engaged and share responsibilities in various institutions of the country, which are directly contributing to the agriculture process. University has a galaxy of highly qualified and foreign trained teaching faculty who always strive to provide cutting-edge teaching and research opportunities that will place graduates at the forefront of new developments in agriculture. Beside its distinguished academic programmes, the university has developed various centres: Seed Production & Development Centre, Plant & Animal Germplasm Conservation Centre for Bio-saline Agriculture, Plant & Animal Food Products Processing and Development units. Various research projects of national and international importance duly supported by reputed organizations such as Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Pakistan Science Foundation, Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, Government of Sindh and various international organisations are undertaken by research scientists of the university. The VC further said since the University always remained in touch with the growers, it could certainly play an active role to arrange a workshop for the growers and exporters together to ascertain through brain storming what were the problems of exporters and growers so that those could be well understood, analyzed and handled according to the priority with mutual censuses of stakeholders. The exporters need to communicate us their specific issues requiring R&D by the University. We will then assign that particular issue to a particular team which would find out appropriate solution. The University has acute shortage of funds and hence the PFVA would be required to provide funds for R&D. He assured that of the four main export products (mango, kinnow, onion and potato), the PFVA was interested, “we will provide R&D for mango and onion as these are main crops in Sindh.” Should the PFVA need any guidance, support and assistance from the University; we would be too pleased to render that. Also we would do what all we can to facilitate frequent communication between the growers and exporters to promote harmony and better understanding among the two main stakeholders. The Growers perceive R&D as useless since they do not have clear concept about the immense subsequent benefits this is going to provide to the growers and we together with the exporters of the PFVA would create awareness among them. Dr Ejaz of SAU-TJM, having frequent interactions with the growers thought that they are not prepared to change their attitude towards R&D and fully endorsed the view of the Chairman that “awareness” among the growers about R&D is essentially required. The University has contributed significantly in enhancement of yield / acre for other agri-produce like banana and sugarcane and would be pleased to do the same for mango and onion being major export crops of the Sindh province. One of the major reasons for lack of interest towards R&D by the growers is that their cost factor shoots up and in absence of any subsidy from the govt. If the exports are prepared to pay well, they may change their attitude towards the R&D. He shared with Chairman, PFVA that growers are just even not aware of quantity of dosage of pesticide and do it without consultation. Hence they are required to be educated on “quality factor” which largely depends on proper dosage of pesticide. The University would conduct “awareness workshops “for the growers in consultation with the PFVA so that the growers and the exporters get on to one page. The PFVA Chairman was then taken around and visited various departments to see research work of the University. He was shown how the University had developed various value-added products of Mango and Banana. During this visit the Chairman shared his concern with Dr Kazi Suleman (coordinator) about the” outdated equipments “being used in these labs for imparting training and feared that the graduates of this University may find it difficult to meet requirements / expectations of the industry which is already using modern equipments. He assured that through media campaign he would try to highlight this problem to the government for replacement of the “obsolete equipments and labs instruments” for better future of graduates of this University.—IQBAL MIRZA
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 13:35:32 +0000
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