Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture Nazar Muhammad Gondal has said that the government has increased the wheat procurement target by one million tons this year and fixed it at 7.5 million tons as against 6.5 million tons of the last year. He said the government would fully play its role in facilitating the growers to dispose off their produce on good price as well as provision of financing to make the official procurement drive a success.
Gondal was speaking at the 115th extra ordinary general meeting of the Farmers Associates Pakistan (FAP) held here on Thursday. He said the government had made it clear to play its role in wheat procurement. He said, in order to meet the demand of gunny bag, a delegation had already left for Bangladesh and government would fulfil its responsibility in this regard.
Replying to reservations raised by the growers on water shortage and Indian water plans, the minister assured that the government was seriously taking up water issue with India and making efforts to resolve it on priority basis. He said the federal government and its foreign ministry had seriously taken up reservations of Pakistan with India on this issue.
Gondal said that water management could also be used to end water shortage. He said the present government was working on a proposal to 100-percent fund the drip and sprinkle water system in the country. He said this scheme would soon be launched in private-public partnership.
He said that some days back while attending a conference on energy he asked the authorities that farmers should be given uninterrupted power supply in off-peak hours for irrigation purposes. On Kalabagh Dam, he said that the government had made it clear that work on this dam would not be carried out without consensus of all the four provinces.
About storage capacity, he said that the government considers it a basic necessity and that was why Rs 37 billion had allocated for it in the current budget. He said that there were three projects being carried out at present in this regard. To another query he hoped that there would be no cut on the development project of the agriculture. He said that the present government was working on all three aspects of agricultural economy that were sowing, harvesting and post-harvest.
He also appreciated the FAP proposal of including farmers' representatives in trading policy formulation and assured that he would take up the issue at the appropriate forum. Gondal stated that it had been hinted that urea would be used more in February this year for Rabi crops. He said that 3,50,000 tons is local production while over 1,50,000 tons was in reserves and hopefully no situation of shortage would occur. He said that one vessel of urea fertiliser would also reach Pakistan by first week of March.
He drew the attention of the FAP members towards the efforts of the government last year when the prices of cotton were falling and assure that the government would utilise all the resources and adopt all the available technologies to ensure a fair price to the farmers of its produce. Nazar Gondal also urged the farmers to pay attention on crop zoning as it would be beneficial for all the farmers as it would help in price stability.
Replying to another query of a progressive farmer Hamid Malhi that the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) role should not be confined to a strategic reserve organisation rather it's role should be expanded, he said that he had met the Corporation authorities Thursday and asked them to make it a commercial organisation.
He said that the government was also trying to import different machinery to promote mechanised farming, including maize and paddy harvesters and dryers for sunflower crop. Earlier, Afaq Tiwana of FAP welcoming the minister raised some points for government consideration, including construction of water reservoirs on all the available sites in the country, promotion of drip and sprinkle irrigation system, wheat marketing and procurement, involvement of farmers in trade policy, bridging gap in demand and supply of fertilisers, organic and bio-gas fertilisers, support for setting up FAP agri-tech college and representation of farmers in the agricultural policy institute.
Hamid Malhi urged the government to make the intervention by the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) timely. He said that agricultural productivity is not a problem of Pakistan but the marketing and the government should guide farmers on this issue.
Another farmer Farooq Bajwa said that there was no technology, which could help agriculture without water. He, however, claimed that not India but Pakistan government was also violating Indus Basic Water Treaty by not feeding the canals of Eastern Rivers from Western Rivers. He also said that the government should give rural areas their full share in the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, which is distributed on population basis.
Other points, which were raised by the farmers on this occasion, include elimination of fixed power charges on agricultural tubewells, uninterrupted power supply for agri tubewells. While FAP also floated a proposal that it should be allowed a joint venture with the Passco under which, it would provide 100,000 tons of wheat to the Corporation in bulk.