Pakistan and China are working to make Gawadar's land green

BEIJING: The ‘shining pearl’ of CPEC has been cultivated with nearly 100,000 plantlets of bananas, dates, orchids and figs under the under the Belt and Road Engineering Research Center for Tropical Arid Non-wood Forest, which was jointly launched by Central South University of Forestry and Technology, China Overseas Ports Holding Company Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd and Yulin Holdings in 2018. Cooperation is increasing between both countries under the research center in Gawadar in which the Karachi University, the Indus University and the University of Agriculture Faisalabad have also participated. Assistant Professor Dr Muhammad Yousaf Adnan of KU’s Department of Botany, said that by turning sandy land into green we can overcome the effects of climate change and global warming. Tissue culture laboratory experiments are also conducted in the research center. He further added that there is no proper source of income of the locals so they were buying seedlings from the tissue culture lab and planting them in their areas which will help in tackling drought environment. This cooperation will help economy of Pakistan and will be a model of how we can green an area.

Associate Professor Dr Irfan Ahmed of University of Agriculture Faisalabad, said that the plants will not only give oxygen and shade but we can also earn through them, and it will also benefit local and farming communities. 

Along with cooperation the personal exchange is also important like Chinese students and teachers will come to Indus University to understand the environment, agriculture and culture of Pakistan, in the same way Pakistani students will go to China to understand their things, said Indus University President Khalid Amin Sheikh.