[Green] Looking for Pakistan's agricultural 'way' with Korean technology

[Anchor]
Pakistan, which is currently receiving bailouts from the International Monetary Fund and IMF, is focusing on increasing agricultural productivity as one of the solutions to overcome economic difficulties.

In particular, we are trying to improve the variety by introducing Korean dairy products along with a project to build a self-sufficiency system for "vaccine seed potatoes" that are not infected with pests by transferring Korean agricultural technology.

Reporter Choi Ki-sung reports.

[Reporter]
Local researchers are cultivating disease-free seed potatoes in the tissue culture room of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Institute.

Disease-free seed potatoes are seed potatoes needed to grow healthy and disease-resistant potatoes.

The Rural Development Administration has been building a disease-free seed potato production system with Pakistan since 2021.

The two countries plan to invest $2.5 million each to produce about 400 million seed potatoes over five years.

[Gulam Muhammad Ali / Pakistan Agricultural Research Commissioner: It is difficult to achieve maximum benefits if crops are damaged or sickened. For this reason, we are distributing disease-free seed potatoes to farmers.

940 Pakistani farmers have been trained in Korean potato production technology and are applying it in the field.

[Jonas Messi / Potato Farmer: Inspection by the Punjab government. Potatoes and seed potatoes are certified to be completely harmless and very healthy. The quality of the potatoes is really good.]

Pakistan, the world's third-largest milk producer, has also introduced Korean dairy products to improve its variety to increase milk production.

[Murtaza Hasan Andhravi / Head of Livestock at Pakistan Agricultural Research Agency: Currently, native Pakistani cattle are being improved through artificial insemination using semen from the Korean Holstein species]

In order to resolve the shortage of feed supply, we have also joined hands in developing local customized grass feed varieties.

[Cho Kyung-rae / Director of Pakistan's Copia Center, Rural Development Administration] We're going to pass on this technology so that the people of this country have the spirit of ownership, develop that technology, and produce results.]

The agency said it plans to continue providing technical support to 22 countries, including Pakistan, to improve agricultural productivity.

This is YTN Choi Ki Sung.