Bosan for enhanced Pak-Australia cooperation to strengthen Agri sector

MULTAN: Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Bosan Friday lauded Australian help in tackling mango diseases for enhanced production of the exotic fruit and added that their pre-harvest guidelines tripled the income of mango growers in targeted areas of Sindh and Punjab.
Talking to reporters at the circuit house, he said that Pakistan and Australia should move ahead for a national level project in the country to expand the benefits to all the provinces in line with efforts aimed at strengthening the agriculture sector.
Bosan was accompanied by a delegation of Australian agriculture scientists led by Ian Bally currently paying a visit to South Punjab and Sindh agriculture areas to explore the need and possibilities for further extension in the on-going Australia-Pakistan Agriculture Sector Linkage Programme (ASLP) for research on mango diseases including Sudden Death and mango malformation besides mango post-harvest handling.
The Minister said that ASLP Mango project has established 24 integrated research sites in Punjab and 12 in Sindh where pre-harvest mango orchard management technology has increased the income of growers from Rs 0.1 million to Rs 0.3 million.
He said that Sudden Death disease can not go away permanently, however, the technology and guidelines conveyed by the Australian experts helped mango growers in a big way.
The delegation head Ian Bally told reporters that growers can increase their production two to three times and improve its quality by following the mango farm management guidelines against sudden death disease. Our research on mango malformation disease was still in progress, he added. He advised growers to perform pruning in their orchards to enable sunlight and air reach plants for proper growth and fruit formation.
The Australian scientist said that Australia will also provide help to Pakistan on post-harvest technology and guidelines for enhanced mango export. Most of Pakistani mango production is wasted between harvest and consumer stage, Ian Bally said.
The Minister said that ASLP Mango project developed three nurseries at Mango Research Station Shujabad, Sindh Horticulture Research Institute Mirpur Khas and Sindh Agriculture University Tando Jam besides three nursery shades. Two commercial nurseries at Sadiqabad and Vehari were operational, he said adding that the Sadiqabad nursery had reared 30,000 mango plants and grafted 8000 which have been sold to orchard owners.
The ASLP project also assisted 17 masters level students and two Ph.D students for their degree research.
Minister said that four research papers were published in the national and international journals while six research abstracts were presented in 2013 and eight abstracts submitted for the conference to be held in 2014.