Two Days Sargodha Citrus Fest Kicks Off at COMSTECH, Islamabad

Islamabad, January 24 January 2024 (Nasir Abbas): The Citrus Fest is being organized by the University of Sargodha and COMSTECH jointly, inaugurated at COMSTECH on Tuesday. The Vice Chancellor of the University of Sargodha Prof. Dr. Qaisar Abbas welcomed the participants of the inaugural ceremony. He said that this is first ever citrus exhibition being organized in Islamabad. Prof. Qaisar Abbas shed the light on the brief history of the University of Sargodha and said that the uniqueness of this university is that it has faculties of both medical and agriculture. He informed that they have started a project to work on the scientific properties of the citrus fruit. Prof. Abbas said that in today’s exhibition 45 varieties of citrus fruit have been displayed and he promised that in the next year exhibition there will be more varieties. Prof. Abbas recommended that we have citrus fruit but we need to develop value added products from this magic fruit to export. Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, Coordinator General COMSTECH said that the University of Sargodha is playing a very important role being the member of COMSTECH Consortium of Excellence and has offered fellowships to the students from OIC states, and many scholars have been placed in the University of Sargodha. Prof. Choudhary said that citrus is a very highly nutritional fruit. He stressed the need of exploring the medicinal properties of this fruit. He appreciated the University of Sargodha’s initiative to explore the medicinal properties of this fruit. He informed that COMSTECH has established a citrus processing unit in Nigeria. Prof. Choudhary thanked the diplomatic community for patronizing COMSTECH activities and initiatives. Prof. Dr. Irfan Ullah, Citrus fruit expert, gave a comprehensive presentation on the nutritional importance of citrus fruit. He also talked about the challenges being faced by the farmers in the cultivation, and gave recommendation to overcome those challenges. He informed that the cultivation area and the share of provinces have been decreasing. He recommended to establish citrus market, expo center and a dry port to facilitate the export of this magic fruit. Ambassadors and diplomats from Sudan, Yemen, Iran, Azerbaijan, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Kenya, and Russia participated in the inaugural ceremony. Mr. Murtaza Noor, Advisor COMSTECH conducted the proceedings of the inaugural ceremony.