Government committed to ensuring food security: Prime Minister

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Friday said the government attaches high priority to rural economy and well-being of people and is committed to ensuring food security in the country. This he stated during a briefing by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFSR), here.
The prime minister said a special Ministry of National Food Security and Research was created to co-ordinate with the provinces as well as international organisations to achieve synergy needed to ensure food security and growth in the agriculture sector. He directed the ministry to present a comprehensive national food security policy for the approval of the Cabinet with the objective that agriculture produce in Pakistan not only meets domestic requirements, but also generates surpluses for exports.
The prime minister said it is unfortunate that despite abundant natural resources our per acre yield is very low. "No country could progress without research. He emphasised the need to intensify research work on prominent crops such as wheat, rice, cotton, sugarcane and pulses so that their yield could be increased," said the Prime Minister. In this connection, he also sensitised the ministry to take necessary steps to encourage appropriate technology to minimise post-harvest losses.
He said there should be an effective mechanism to educate farmers and the industry on any development made in agriculture research so that the agriculture sector can benefit from it. In this connection, he directed the ministry to work out plan to increase edible oil production so that the country could save foreign exchange on its imports.
The prime minister said farmer friendly policies of the government have enabled the country not only to become self-sufficient in wheat, but also joined the club of wheat exporting countries. The government is committed to extending all possible support to maintain this momentum, he added. The meeting was informed that the government has wheat stocks of 8.41 million tons and is planning to export one million tons from its stock. Rice production is expected at 6.16 million tons, which shows an improvement of 28 percent against last year. Sugarcane production is estimated at 59.5 million tons as compared to 55.3 million tons last year. Cotton production is expected to be around 13.6 million bales.
The meeting was briefed about various departments working under the ministry for promoting agriculture and research in the country. Those who attended the meeting included Amin Fahim, Minister for Commerce, Israr Ullah Khan Zehri, Minister for National Food Security and Research, Dr Hafeez Sheikh, Minister for Finance, Moazzam Ali Khan Jatoi, Minister of State for National Food Security and Research and other senior officials.-PR