Punjab Minister for Agriculture Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh inaugurated "Foundation Seed Cell" at Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI), Faisalabad to provide basic seeds of various crop to private seed companies other than Punjab Seed Corporation to enhance crop yield.
Speaking on the occasion the Minister said that the farmers' friendly policies of Punjab Government have contributed significantly in achieving sustainability in agriculture growth. He said that government has given subsidy amounting to Rs 30 billions on fertiliser, besides distributing 10,000 tractors among the farmers in a transparent manner with 2 lac subsidy on each tractor.
In order to introduce efficient marketing system a chain of cold storage was being established in all big cities and a cold storage of five hundred ton capacity has been set up at Lahore. The Minister informed that timely steps have been taken to import 6 lac tons of fertiliser and due to this timely import the fertiliser is abundantly available in the market.
The minister assured that problems faced by rice growers in marketing their production would be solved on priority basis and Passco has been asked to ensure support price of the paddy and make full arrangements for purchase of the commodity. Dr Muhammad Rashid, Director General Agriculture (Research) elaborated the objectives of establishment of the "Foundation Seed Cell".
He told that farmers are facing problems in obtaining quality seed of minor crops like pluses, vegetables, edible oils, fodder etc and the newly established ell would solve this problem. M. Boota Sarwar, Director General Federal Seed Certification & Registration also addressed the meeting and appreciated the efforts of Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad for establishing Foundation Seed Cell.