Ms. Mariam Aftab, the Ambassador of Pakistan to Bulgaria visited the Agricultural Academy of Bulgaria on December 15, 2021 and met with its President Prof. Dr. Ing. Martin Banov. Prof. Banov was accompanied by Prof. Elena Todorovska, Chief Scientific Secretary and Mr. Ivan Nenov, Director of International Cooperation, Public Relations and Protocol Directorate, of the Academy.
The purpose of the visit was to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on Scientific and Technical Cooperation in the Field of Agricultural Research between Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) and Agricultural Academy of Bulgaria, as well as to discuss possible avenues of collaboration/cooperation between the two countries in the field of agricultural research and technology.
Welcoming the Ambassador to the Academy, Prof. Banov expressed his pleasure of the fact that the two countries are finally signing this MoU after prolonged negotiations. He said that signing of this MoU would be the first step towards a more meaningful and fruitful collaboration between the two countries in this all-important field of agricultural technologies and research.
Ambassador Mariam Aftab thanked the President of the Academy for the warm reception. She highlighted that both Pakistan and Bulgaria rely heavily on their agricultural sectors and therefore the two countries have a lot to learn from each other’s experiences and expertise in the agricultural-related technologies. She said that PARC was interested in learning from Bulgarian experience in the fields of germplasm for cereals, fruit and vegetable crops, value-addition and reducing post-harvest losses in fruits and vegetables, processing and value addition of milk and meat products, veterinary vaccines production technology and control of infectious diseases in animals, exploitation of alternate energy resources for agriculture and collaboration in fabricating farm machinery.
At the end of meeting, the Ambassador and the President signed the MoU on Scientific and Technical Cooperation in the Field of Agricultural Research.
