KARACHI   -   Sindh Agriculture Minister Muhammad Bux Mahar has said that the Research Wing of the Agriculture Department would devise a mechanism to provide interest-free loans to the students of Sindh Agricultural University, Tandojam. He said that he would also talk to the Chief Minister regarding the grant so that the youth of Sindh could start their own agricultural business. He stated this while presiding over a high-level meeting of the Agricultural Research Wing of the Department of Agriculture at the Sindh Secretariat, a communique said on Sunday. The provincial minister said that the Research Wing should introduce new varieties of wheat, rice and sugarcane crops and give the varieties to the farmers of the province for free. Mahar said that climate change had become a major problem, the biggest impact of which is on agriculture, which needed more budget to work on capacity building and provide more training to agriculture officers. He directed DG Research Noor Muhammad Baloch to improve the production and quality of mangoes, dates and cotton. The DG Researc, while briefing the meeting, said that the Research Wing had introduced 13 varieties of wheat by 2023 and 14 varieties of cotton by 2020, the yield of which was 85 to 80 maunds per acre, while 11 varieties of rice, sugarcane 11 varieties and 7 varieties of vegetables had been introduced. He further informed that the Agricultural Research Wing had trained more than 300 women in the Institute of Food and Science Technology to produce agricultural products so that women could earn by doing small business at home.

 Besides others the meeting was attended by Vice Chancellor Agriculture University Tando Jam Dr. Fateh Muhammad Marri, Akbar Ali Zardari and other research officers.