The Punjab agriculture department has established a modern nursery in Jhang district for the promotion of date palm cultivation in the low-rainfall areas of the province. In addition to eight popular Pakistani varieties, seven varieties have been imported from the Middle East and Saudi Arabia to develop quality plants for farmers.
The nursery, hopefully, will start supplying quality plants to the farmers in the next few years which will also help increase export of date, said Chief Scientist of Ayub Agriculture Research Institute (AARI) Malik Muhammad Nawaz Khan Maikan.
The government is set to focus intensely on the future of the country's agriculture, linking it to high-value agriculture, especially the production of fruits and vegetables and the increase in agricultural exports. It calls upon agricultural scientists to speed up research on new varieties of wheat, cotton, paddy, corn, fruits, vegetables, pulses and oilseeds and take steps to deliver seeds of new varieties to the farmers as soon as possible.
Source: brecorder.com