Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (Parc) Chairman Dr Zafar Altaf stressed the need for practising science-based agriculture and balanced use of fertiliser for crops to enhance productivity and increase farm income. While talking to PTV, Dr Altaf said the farmers were suffering from two or three kinds of disadvantages.
In a liberal economic system, it was essential to provide some safeguard if the marketplace did not provide adequate protection to a farmer. Responding to a query regarding primary food security, he said that crop patron should be improved for better and strong cotton production. Several programmes would be initiated for the farmers in this regard. There is a need for young farmers to use new technologies for introducing new methods for the healthy developments in agriculture sector.
The chairman said, "we have to provide approved quality seeds to the farmers. We need to draw our attention to these problems and we are trying that all private seed companies follow a process." He gave full credit to present government for clamping a ban on the mortgage of small landholding. "The informal sector is even more regressive because after sometime, when the principal becomes huge, they automatically take over the land," he said.