Punjab Government will protect farmers' rights by keeping them away from the middle man's exploitation and will make all out efforts to ensure paddy rice procurement at the rate of Rs 1250 per 40 kg through Passco.
Chief Minister Punjab Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif stated this while addressing the farmers' representatives and UAF scientists here at new senate hall of UAF on Sunday morning.
He maintained that decision of rice procurement was a federal subject but he will urge the Prime Minister in the forthcoming meeting on November 4 to extend his full co-operation for mitigating the farmers' problems to procure rice at government support price of Rs 1250 per 40 kg.
He announced an allocation of Rs 50 million for UAF and asked Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan to visit his office along with brilliant minds to put forward workable suggestions for the solution of alarming problems of agriculture sector. He said that Pakistan was bestowed with ideal soil, water, favourable climate and vibrant human resources but economic position of its farmers remained vulnerable due to various management problems which need to be resolved through co-ordinated efforts of all stake holders. "We need to strengthen the agriculture and solve the farmers' problems if we really want to make sustainable progress," he added. Mian Shahbaz Sharif informed the gathering that last year, his government had procured more than 90 percent wheat from the farmers and eliminated the role of middleman. He revealed that his government had provided ten thousand tractors to farmers having 12 acre agricultural land through a transparent mechanism by extending Rs 2 billion subsidy.
He underlined the need for better post-harvest management of export-oriented agricultural commodities as the host countries of such fruits and vegetables expressed their concerns and were reluctant to import them due to low quality, grading and packing problems.
Earlier provincial agriculture minister Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh said that Punjab Government under the dynamic leadership of Mian Shahbaz Sharif successfully made the outstanding payments of Rs 49 billion rupees of the sugarcane farmers from the sugar mills. He asked the federal government to procure 10 million tons of paddy rice from the farmers on support price of Rs 1250 so as to get rid of middleman's exploitation and ensure the farmers rights. He urged the government to export the rice amounting to 5 billion US dollars.
Farmers' representatives Nawab Farhat Ullah Khan and Rabia Sultan asked the CM to play his significant role to save the farmers from middlemen. They expressed their concerns and said that despite of timely announcement of support price by the federal government, the market rate of paddy rice was likely to be fluctuated between Rs 750 to 800 as such there was a dire need of CM's intervention to protect the farmers' rights.
UAF Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan while presenting welcome address, told that his University so far has produced 44000 graduates and was on the way towards internationalisation, as in the recent past it has inked various MoUs with various international organisations of advanced countries. He revealed that out of 3640 ISO journal publications of 128 universities of the country, UAF has published more than 350 publications and put substantial weight in this way.
Dr Khan informed that UAF was vigorously pursuing towards precision agriculture, water economy, biotechnology, rural development and transgenic crops to equip its graduates with global research trends. He said to chief minister that UAF was a major partner of 5 countries consortium with 5 million Euros under a mega-project of German government. He said that on the initiatives of Punjab Government UAF has extended its close liaison and co-operation with Iranian, Chinese and French universities and was on the way of exploring the horizons of ever-new success.