Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said Pakistan could greatly benefit from Chinese expertise in the agriculture sector and opined that strengthening cooperation in agriculture would be one of the priority agenda of his forthcoming visit to China. Chairing a meeting on agriculture here at the PM Office, he was informed that the country's agriculture had been stagnant for past many decades and little work was done to assist the farmers in crop diversification, enhancement of yield and mechanization of agriculture sector.
It was informed that research was totally ignored in the past resulting in overall deterioration of the sector, while low agricultural output resulted in greater reliance on import that led to soaring up of the import bill.
Expressing concern over the existing state of affairs, the PM said boosting agricultural sector was a major plank of agenda of the PTI government.
He said there was a need to support farmers and help them in adopting best practices along with requisite support in provision of finances and mechanization process.
He was informed that the existing trend could be effectively checked and reversed with short-term measures and work on long-term strategy could be started immediately with concerted efforts of all stakeholders.
He was also given a detailed briefing on the existing situation vis-à-vis wheat, rice and sugarcane crop along with a comparative analysis with the neighbouring countries and other producers with regards to production, exports and imports.
Imran Khan was informed that as part of PTI's agenda of placing greater focus on the agriculture sector, various projects were being planned to increase crop yield and productivity, to shift focus towards exports and encouraging crop diversification.
The projects include increase in yields of major crops and adoption of oil seeds; optimum utilization of water resources; harnessing untapped potential of fisheries; restructuring of livestock business model; transforming agriculture produce markets and increasing access to finance for the farmers.
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