STORY: Chinese agricultural technology helps with oilseed harvesting in Pakistan
SHOOTING TIME: April 19, 2024
DATELINE: April 26, 2024
LENGTH: 00:01:55
LOCATION: Islamabad
CATEGORY: AGRICULTURE

SHOTLIST:
1. various of agriculture in Pakistan
2. SOUNDBITE (Chinese): ZHOU XUSHENG, Director, International Business Department of Wuhan Qingfa Hesheng Seed Company

STORYLINE:

Pakistan is an agriculture-centric economy, which depends on imports for approximately 89 percent of its edible oil needs.

Due to the high cost of imported edible oil and scarcity of quality oil seeds in the local market, many villagers had to resort to cheaper but unhealthful alternatives such as mustard oil.

In line with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor cooperation in agriculture, Chinese company Wuhan Qingfa Hesheng Seed Co., Ltd. and Pakistan's Evyol Group signed a memorandum of understanding in 2022 to help Pakistan produce and harvest ample amounts of canola oilseeds.

In Pakistan's eastern Bhakkar district, farmers are increasing oilseed production through high-quality hybrid seeds, modern Chinese agricultural machinery, as well as customized efficient harvesting approaches.

SOUNDBITE (Chinese): ZHOU XUSHENG, Director, International Business Department of Wuhan Qingfa Hesheng Seed Company
"From 2023 to 2024, our hybrid oilseed field was enlarged by ten times but the further expansion was limited by local poor harvesting techniques. According to the current situation in Pakistan, we have customized two harvesting approaches. One is one-time harvesting approach, which is harvesting one time after the oilseeds are completely ripe. In this way, the harvest loss can be reduced to less than eight percent, which is equivalent to a 20-30 percent increase in output. At the same time, we also provide another two-stage harvesting approach, which involves cutting the crop close to maturity and picking it up two to three days later. This will control the harvest loss to less than five percent, equivalent to an increase of about 30 percent in output for farmers."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Islamabad.
(XHTV)