Unisame calls for taking benefit of indigenous crops

KARACHI: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) urged the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) to develop substitute food items from indigenous crops, a statement said on Tuesday.

Unisame President Zulfikar Thaver said Pakistan has sufficient rice, maize and grams. “We also have sunflowers and other such commodities that we need to work on, and PCSIR could develop food items from these commodities.”

He said that the country also has dates in abundance which is a high value nutritional commodity and many items can be made from it.

The PCSIR in the past had shown the Unisame how it made synthetic meat and milk from beans and egg powder, Thaver said, adding that the PCSIR has expertise to make many food items from indigenous produced items.

This is the need of the hour and the scientists at the PCSIR need to come up with innovative ideas or for that matter copy advanced countries. “In order to reduce the consumption of wheat, we can mix it with maize to make flour,” the Unisame president said.

Pakistan needs a substitute for tea as a huge amount of tea is being imported which is a big burden for the exchequer. The country has an abundance of coal in Thar, which can be used to produce energy and diesel.

The Unisame council member said that Balochistan has a lot of gold and minerals which remain unexplored due to unfavourable political conditions in the province.

The council members said that the PCSIR and other institutions need to coordinate with one another and tap all the indigenous resources to reduce imports and save valuable foreign exchange.