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PAKISTAN TO TEST CULTIVATION IN WATER SCARCE AREAS

SARID, November 19, 2006

About 51 percent of Pakistan is arid, semi-arid or rugged, and not easily cultivated so that the government of Pakistan has long been seeking techniques that would boost agriculture, and therefore socio-economic development, in these regions.

Now, under the auspices of the Ministry for Food Agriculture and Livestock, the Pakistan Agricultural Council (PARC) - an autonomous body mandated to promote new technologies - has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Environment Research Services (EMS), a limited company registered in Japan, to start an innovative pilot project to grow various local plant species in different climactic locations in Pakistan.

EMS has researched and developed materials and technologies for growing trees in difficult environments since 1973 and specializes in water-saving techniques. The company has developed recycled, environment-friendly “Cultivation Pots” to grow trees, vegetables and grasses in dry areas and hilly terrain, and thinks Pakistan would be fertile ground, so to speak, to test their use, manufacture and marketability.

Under the MoU, EMS would provide their proprietary “Cultivation Pot” technology at the lowest cost possible to PARC, which will implement the project in order to enhance cultivation in Pakistan’s water-deprived areas.

Sources: Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (http://www.parc.gov.pk/)