JICA Afghan Mission visits NARC for regional cooperation in agriculture & rural development

ISLAMABAD, April 27: A five-member delegation of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Mission from Afghanistan and JICA-Pakistan consisting of Jun Moriguchi, Yukiko Kikuchi, Satoshi Hamano, Amir Bukhari and Arshad Abbasi visited National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) Islamabad to seek support from Pakistani scientists for Regional Cooperation in Agriculture and Rural Development in Afghanistan through sharing new scientific knowledge, interventions, experience and success stories of NARC / PARC.  Senior Scientist of NARC Dr. Tariq Mahmood, DDG (Plant Protection) presided over a meeting with JICA-Afghan Mission. Dr. Roshanzada, Senior Director Outreach Programme gave a detail presentation about NARC. He said that NARC is the largest agriculture centre in Pakistan at national level. He briefed NARC mandate; strategic research on national and regional priorities, emerging challenges in agriculture, explanatory research on new commodities, fill gaps in regional research agencies, collaboration and linkages with international research centres, provincial research systems, PARC research establishments, extension and development agencies and services to national systems through conservation and supply of germplasm, human resources development, agricultural scientific information and commercialization of technologies and products.  Dr. Tariq Hassan, DDG (Commercialization) & CEO PATCO and other senior scientists also shared their knowledge and experience with the participants. Later on the delegation visited Department of Horticultural Research and Development (DHRD), Plant Genetic Resources Institute (PGRI) – GeneBank, National Institute of Genomics and Advanced Biotechnology (NIGAB) and Agriculture Polytechnique Institute (API) of NARC.-PR