Balanced application of fertilisers, use of quality seed

President, Pakistan Agricultural Scientists Association (Pasa), Jamshed Iqbal Cheema, has said that farm income of the growers could increased without creating awareness amongst them about balanced application of fertilisers, quality seed and efficient used of water.
He said better farm management practices are also another important feature, besides aforementioned factors to enhance per acre yield as well as income of the growers. Nevertheless, he regretted that not a single professional farm manager is available in the country.
Talking to a group of journalists, Cheema said promotion of food processing industries was a must to ensure handsome return to growers and maintaining the price equilibrium in the market. He said that then they had surplus produce in cold storage or in shape of processed items, it would remove uncertainty from the market and save upward or downward jump in the prices of different commodities in case of shortage or bumper crops. The post harvest losses were also a reflection of absence of cold storages and food processing industry in the country, he added.
He severely criticised the policies of federal and provincial governments towards agricultural sector and said that all the policies were politically-motivated and not aimed at protecting the interests of the growers and farmers. He said that he consider year 2011 as the black year for agriculture in which, prices of all the agricultural inputs including fertiliser shot up while the produce prices dropped to add to the woes of the growers.
He severely lamented the federal government for a faulty policy on fertiliser import and claimed that those in power minted money through import of urea as well as allowing the fertiliser manufacturing companies to increase the prices. He said that the members of the ruling coalition minted money by every possible means in the fertiliser sector severely denting the growth of agricultural sector.
Cheema said that the policies toed by the present government would definitely impact the agricultural production. He said that already wheat was sown on 2.5 million acres less than the targeted area and fertiliser application rate has also came down due to being expensive and it might result in 4-5 million tons of less production than the target. He said that the government should also focus on saving growers from the injustices of millers. He said that sugarcane minimum rate was fixed at Rs 150 per maund this year but the growers were getting from Rs 90 to 135 per maund.