PFA seals another factory
LAHORE (Staff Reporter): Punjab Food Authority has sealed jam (murabba, fruit preserves) factory over preparing unhygienic jam with germs-infested and contaminated ingredients in the area of Shahdrah. Whereas, food team has confiscated 29000 kg ready jam (murabba), 11000 kg raw material and 169 chemical blue drums. Operation was conducted under the supervision of Additional Director General (Operations) Rafia Haider along with food safety team on the tip-off information of PFA vigilance cell. Discarded jam had to be sold on different shops and allopathic and herbal medicine manufacturers of the city. Rafia Haider said that jam was being prepared by using chemical, rotten fruits, saccharine, non-ratified flavor and blue drums being used for preserving jam. Thick fungus layers were also accumulated on stored jam. She said that FIR has been registered against the factory owner who flees from the spot but his companion was busted and handed over to respective area police station.
PFA is efficiently active against substandard and unhygienic food suppliers in Punjab and will make things hard for manufacturers who are producing and selling substandard and unhygienic food products, she added.
In other activities, PFA teams sealed two renowned food points for providing unhealthy food to the consumers and also imposed collective fine of Rs 46,500 on four eateries.
Agri sec distributes performance awards among 2,500 employees
LAHORE (Staff Reporter): For the first time, Punjab Agriculture Department Saturday organised a performance award ceremony for best performing and devoted officers. Agriculture secretary Muhammad Mahmood and senior officials including Silwat Saeed, Dr. Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Rana Mahmood Akhtar participated in it. Mahmood announced that the ceremony will be organised every year on August 14. He said all resources were vested to transform agriculture sector into a profitable sector for farmers/stakeholders. Recruitment of more than 600 field staff, delivery of new motorbikes, laptops, android phones and transport vehicles for staff were proofs of government intention for development of the department, he said. Mahmood said the department had started training programs for staff , provide additional operational budget and equipped field staff to provide full fledge services to farmers/stakeholders. As many as 2500 employees awarded certificates and honorarium at the ceremony.
Committed trade leaders vital to resolve issues of community: FCCI President
FAISALABAD (INP): President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) Shabbir Hussain Chawala has said that honest, visionary and committed trade leaders are imperative to resolve the collective problems confronted by the local trade and industry. Addressing a reception dinner hosted in his honor by Malik Shah Jehan Awan of Faisalabad Dyes and Chemical Merchants Association, Shabbir Hussain Chawala expressed satisfaction that during recent elections competent trade leaders have been elected for different trade bodies hailing from this city. This leadership is not only competent but also has potential to resolve the problems of their specific trade, he added. He termed FCCI as the mother institution of all trade bodies and said that more than 50 sectors have been given direct or indirect representation in this apex trade body so that they could sit together under one roof and resolve their issues amicably in addition to making recommendation to the concerned government departments.
He termed Faisalabad Dyes and Chemical Merchants Association as an important trade body of the city and hoped that its members would also elect best candidates from amongst them who have passion to serve their community.
China super hybrid rice output sets new world record
BEIJING (INP): A new type of Chinese super hybrid rice ‘Xiangliangyou 900’ has reached average yields of 1,149 kilograms per mu (about 0.07 hectares) on trial fields in Handan, north China’s Hebei province on October 15, setting a new world record. The Xiangliangyou 900 type produces more and bigger grains than other varieties and, combined with the use of water-soluble organic silicon fertilizer will guarantee a rate of 90 percent. The fertilizer can help strengthen roots and stems of the plants, increase resilience, improve the yellowing process, and bolster disease and pest resistance to ensure higher yields. Xiangliangyou 900 was cultivated by a team of scientists led by Yuan Longping, known as the "father of hybrid rice" whose dream is to spread his hybrid rice worldwide. Yuan has estimated that the world now has 150 million hectares of rice fields, with less than 10 percent planted in hybrid rice. If that figure can go up to 50 percent, the added rice production will feed another 400 to 500 million people.
China has the second largest paddy coverage and the largest rice production in the world.