ISLAMABAD, Nov 8 (Alliance News): Chief Executive Officer of National Productivity Organization (NPO) Muhammad Alamgir Chaudhry on Wednesday said that the use of modern technology, innovation and hybrid seeds is essential to increase productivity in agriculture.
Agriculture has an 18% share in Pakistan’s annual Gross Domestic Production (GDP) and productivity in this sector is important for our economic development, Chief Executive Officer of the National Productivity Organization (NPO) told Alliance News here.
Alamgir said that Pakistan is among the top five countries in the production of milk, mango, wheat and other Agricultural commodities.
He said that our main issue here is value addition, without which economic growth is not possible.
He said that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Thailand, have an export of about $38 billion in mangoes and strawberry pulp, but strawberries were not the production of these countries.
Similarly, Bangladesh’s biggest export is textiles in the world but its raw material cotton was not Bangladesh’s production.
He said, “we have to learn modern agriculture from Japan and ASEAN countries, which also increases the production per acre.”
Alamgir Khan said that NPO conducted training workshops to increase the agricultural production capacity, where trainers were invited from foreign countries.
He said that awareness is needed to increase agricultural and economic productivity in Pakistan, on which the IPO is working continuously.
He said that up to 35% of the crops are wasted here during cultivation, which needs to be prevented.
The Chief Executive Officer of NPO said the NPO, Productivity Enhancement drive will prove beneficial for Agriculture and industrial productivity in the country.
It is very significant to implement the productivity drive for the Agriculture and industrial revolution in Pakistan, which will increase economic competitiveness in the country, he said.
Replying to a question, he said the Ministry of Industries and Production has launched a development project to improve the productivity of the industrial, manufacturing, services and education sectors through the assistance of the National Productivity Organization (NPO).
Alamgir said the NPO would train the stakeholders to increase productivity and make them productivity specialists in their sectors concerned as it had been accredited the status of certification body by the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) Japan for a period of four years.
After getting training from NPO, quality, competitiveness and sustainable social economic development in the country, he added.
He said the productivity movement was the first-ever developmental initiative funded by a public sector development programme (PSDP) to improve competitiveness through sustainable national productivity.
The Chief Executive Officer of NPO said the government was working hard to make Pakistan economically productive and globally competitive by promoting an export-driven economy through imparting training and producing productivity specialists in the country.
He said that more than ten thousand individuals including students of schools and technical institutes had so far been educated to give awareness about the concept of productivity through various sessions all over Pakistan.
More than six hundred targeted industrial and agriculture workers had been trained through renowned productivity experts about productivity tools and techniques, he maintained.