The Punjab government has formulated a comprehensive agricultural policy to provide modern agriculture inputs to farmers, loans on soft-term basis, the best way of marketing agriculture produce and provision of laser tractors to farmers at the union council level.
This was stated by Punjab Agriculture Minister Muhammad Arshad Khan Lodhi, while speaking at a "Kissan Convention" here at the University of Agriculture.
He said that agriculture is the backbone of national economy. Agriculture sector being the lynchpin of the country's economy continues to be the single largest sector and a dominant driving force for growth and development of the national economy. It accounts for 25 percent of the GDP and employs 48.4 percent of the total work force.
Agriculture contributes to growth as a supplier of raw materials to industry as well as a market for industrial products and also contributes substantially to Pakistan's exports earnings.
Almost 67.5 percent of country's population are living in rural areas and are directly or indirectly linked with agriculture for their livelihood.
Any improvement in agriculture will not only help country's economic growth to rise at a faster rate but will also benefit a large segment of the country's population, he added.
The minister claimed that efforts were also being made to reduce the mark-up on agriculture loans next year, keeping in view reducing the import of agriculture produce, which has been reached up to Rs 80 billion.
He said that laser tractors would be provided to farmers at the union council level so that they could set the level of their lands according to the required measurement.
He pointed out that over 68 percent population in the country depended on agriculture and livestock while 44 percent of the population was directly or indirectly associated with this sector.
There was a dire need to modernise the agriculture system so that the country's economy could be put on the path of progress and prosperity, he said.
About the complaints from the farming community regarding the shortage of irrigation water, the minister said the provincial government had chalked out a strategy to meet this crisis.
For this purpose, he said, the desilting campaign of canals was being launched throughout the province while a number of canals and distributaries were being cemented with a huge amount.
He was appreciative of the role of the University of Agriculture, which has produced the best scientists.
It is only due to the UAF and our hard working farmers that Punjab is producing 81 percent of wheat, 80 percent of cotton and 94 percent of rice in addition to the export of citrus and mango.
Comparing Pakistani Punjab with that of Indian Punjab, he said that farmers of Indian Punjab are getting high yield in number of crops only due to the subsidies being pumped into the agriculture sector.
He said that our farmers are more devoted and hardworking as they are also getting 30 mounds of wheat, 24 mounds of rice and 20 to 22 mounds of cotton without any subsidy.
He said that citrus production is also increasing gradually. The citrus orchard that was available at Rs 5,000 per acre last year is now fetching profit of Rs 100,000, which is indicative of the hard work of our farmers.
He said that potato crop is also doing great, as we are expecting to harvest 15,000 tons of potato this year.
"The surplus production will be exported after retaining 11 to 12 percent for domestic consumption" he said and added that we are in touch with the Center to negotiate better price for growers.
He also mentioned that the in-time announcement of wheat support price and said that this year government will also lift each and every grain of wheat. "These measures will help our farmers to survive successfully and profitably in the WTO regime", he hoped.
University of Agriculture vice-chancellor Dr Riaz Hussain Qureshi said that efforts were being made to set up a modern radio station on the campus to inform farmers about the latest techniques.
A number of seminars, workshops and training programmes had already been held in this regard, he said.
Provincial livestock secretary Muhammad Athar Tahir revealed that Jhang, Okara, Sahiwal and Muzaffargarh districts had been declared as 'livestock zone' and work was going on in these districts for the promotion of livestock.
Comments
Comments are closed.