ISLAMABAD, May 31 (NNN-APP) – Hybrid rice seed donation from China, will play a major role in rebuilding the agriculture sector of Pakistan’s south-west Balochistan province, which was badly affected by devastating floods last year, a Pakistani official said, yesterday.
Addressing the seed donation ceremony, Balochistan’s legislative assembly speaker, Jan Muhammad Jamali, said, the government and people of China extended great help to Pakistan, in rehabilitation work after the flood, and through the seed donation, it will help the people who lost all their fortune in the calamity.
Jamali said, 85 to 90 percent of Balochistan was affected by the floods last year, and the donated seeds will revive rice plantations in the province, where rice is a major crop.
Highlighting friendship between the two countries, Bao Zhong, counsellor of political affairs of the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, said, China-Pakistan friendship is deeply embedded in the hearts of the two peoples.
She said, China is willing to encourage enterprises of the two countries to carry out agricultural cooperation, under the framework of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
China is ready to share its advanced agricultural development technology and experience with Pakistan, to help lift its agricultural development level, the Chinese counsellor said.
“China will, as always, help Pakistan improve the livelihood of the people of Balochistan province, promote exchanges between sister provinces and cities, and encourage the development of local industries to benefit the local people,” she added.
Zhou Xusheng, director of the international business department of Wuhan Qingfa Hesheng Seed Co. Ltd, which is the donor, said, the Chinese company is willing to continue to provide training on hybrid rice cultivation techniques to Pakistani farmers, to help increase agricultural output.
Launched in 2013, CPEC is a corridor linking Pakistan’s Gwadar Port with Kashgar, in north-west China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which highlights energy, transport, and industrial cooperation.
