Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan has said that all necessary steps will be taken to modernise tobacco farming in the country as it is one of the major exports of Pakistan. He stated this while talking to a delegation of tobacco growers from district Buner, NWFP here on Thursday.
Tobacco farming is the backbone of our exports so that work on setting up a state-of-the-art tobacco research center has been sped up, he said adding that modern tobacco kilns will be built soon in the region.
Sher Akbar Khan, who was heading the delegation briefed the minister about problems faced by the tobacco growers of his district. 'Annually 8 million kilograms of Virginia tobacco, worth 9200 million rupees is cultivated in Bunner, he added.
He said that almost 50 percent of the cultivable land is utilised for tobacco farming. He further said that tobacco farming was initiated in 1963 in the region to provide an economic substitute for opium growers. Sher Akbar said that lack of research set-up, modern techniques, unavailability of natural gas supply has marred the well being of tobacco farmers.
Akbar further said that there are at least 4760 tobacco kilns in district Bunner that operate according to outdated mechanism. The minister ensured the delegation of his ministry's full cooperation and facilitation by the commerce ministry to overcome hurdles faced by Tobacco growers of NWFP.
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