Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday approved a sweeping restructuring of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), aiming to modernise the institution, enhance agricultural exports, and secure national food requirements.
The decision was taken during a high-level meeting chaired by the premier in Islamabad, where he directed the Ministry of National Food Security and Research to prepare a detailed implementation roadmap with timelines for execution.
Under the plan, the National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) in Islamabad will be converted into five centres of excellence, focusing on genome-based research for field and horticultural crops, livestock genetic improvement and health management, climate-smart land and water solutions, and AI-driven precision agriculture including farm automation and robotics. Each centre will be led by experts from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS).
Four ecology-based regional hubs will complement the centres of excellence. The Tropical Agricultural Research Centre in Karachi will focus on tropical crops, coastal agriculture and inland fisheries. Quetta’s Dryland Agricultural Research Centre will specialise in arid horticulture, rangeland management, and livestock. Gilgit-Baltistan will host a Dryland Agricultural Research Centre dedicated to mountain horticulture and cold-water fisheries, while the Arid Zone Research Institute in Dera Ismail Khan will concentrate on arid crops and natural resource management.
Governance reforms include placing foreign experts, including CAAS specialists, on 50 percent of the scientific advisory committee board and embedding international partnerships across the research system. PARC will shift from direct implementation to a strategic coordination role to streamline research nationally.
The restructuring will be executed in four phases. Phase one in 2026 focuses on institutional setup, governance, target-setting, and creation of an evaluation cell. Phase two (2027-28) operationalises the five centres at NARC and pilots programs in Punjab and Sindh. Phase three (2028-30) rolls out the program nationally, integrates the AI-powered National Agricultural Research Information System, and achieves 25 percent private co-funding. Phase four, starting 2030, targets continuous global benchmarking, peer reviews, and regional innovation leadership.
Financial targets include a Rs10 billion endowment fund, Rs2 billion annual federal grant, and raising national agricultural R&D spending from 0.5 percent to 1 percent of agricultural GDP. The plan expects 25 percent funding from private co-investment, 20 percent from commercialisation and licensing, and at least 20 percent of projects dedicated to AI, biotechnology, and precision agriculture.
Export-oriented research will account for 70 percent of initiatives aligned with the prime minister’s export strategies. The plan also aims to reverse human capital erosion, lowering the average researcher age to 45 years, positioning PARC as a modern, globally competitive institution.
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