President Asif Ali Zardari stressed the need for encouraging the private-public partnership in different sectors and called for enhancing the food grain storage to ensure food security. Food grains storage capacity could be enhanced through private public partnership under which the private sector would build additional storage capacity while the public sector would guarantee to rent out the storage space.
The President said this while addressing a function organised to give presentation to the President on current situation of food grains stocks and food security. Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock Nazr Muhammad Gondal gave the presentation at Aiwan e Sadr on Tuesday.
Syed Asif Shah Secretary Commerce, Ziaur Rehman Secretary Food and Agriculture and Muhammad Saeed Chairman Trading Corporation of Pakistan were also present on the occasion. The President said that during his visit to China a number of Chinese entrepreneurs had evinced interest in undertaking development projects through the public private partnership and asked the Ministry to further explore the offer in building additional storage capacity.
The meeting reviewed the import situation of wheat and fertiliser for the Rabi crop and measures taken for the optimal utilisation of irrigation water. Emphasising the importance of optimal utilisation of water, President Zardari said that the government had sent water expert to Beijing to study the agro based industries in that country and the Chinese model of optimal utilisation of irrigation water with a view to examining if the system could be replicated in Pakistan also.
Zardari asked that a separate meeting be arranged for the ginning factories owners with the Water and Power Ministry to sort out the issue. He asked the Federal Minister to carry out studies on laboratory facilities for the testing of food items and wheat and make suggestions for improving them. Matters pertaining to cotton growers and ginning factories also came under discussion. The Agriculture Minister pointed out the problem of power shortage said that due to this problem the ginning factories were being closed.
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