FAISALABAD: “Pakistan doesn’t have cotton that is suitable for machine picking, and China’s cotton is not that resistant to heat and drought, so if we collaborate with each other, we can exchange cotton Germplasms, so as to share knowledge and scientific approaches with each other,” said Muhammad Tehseen Azhar, lecturer from Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF), and Lecturer-Chair of Germplasm and Genetic Stocks, ICGI. As he sees it, lack of technology in Pakistan could be problematic for some time. “Pakistan is still on the list of developing countries, and there’re lots of differences in cotton research between Beijing and Pakistan, like the lack of proper infrastructure in agriculture.” “Farm work is mechanized in most parts of China, you know, from sowing to picking or harvesting, but Pakistan is still in the end of that line,” he further mentioned. In order to tap the potential of Pak-China cooperation in cotton research, he has signed MoUs of joint research program with different Chinese institutions, including Department of Science and Technology of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Xinjiang Agricultural University (XAU), School of Agriculture Sciences, Zhengzhou University, and Institute of Cotton Research (ICR) of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Anyang. –PNP
