The government has provided Rs 260 billion agricultural loans to the farmers during the last financial year, besides spending Rs 62 billion on agricultural research and development projects, which helped increase agricultural production.
Minister for Food and Agriculture Nazar Muhammad Gondal informed the Senate during question hour on Friday that efforts were being made to enhance production of non-traditional crops including jute, olive and tea, besides traditional crops of wheat, cotton and rice.
He further said that successful experiments have been made for production of tea and olive, adding that a commercial tea production project through public private partnership is now in progress to cultivate tea on 4200 acres of land in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Kashmir.
He further said that incentives were being given to the farmers to cultivate olive in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Balochistan. To another question, he said that lining of 14262-kilometer long watercourses had been completed during the last three years, while work on 4152 watercourses was underway in the country and expected to be completed by June 2011.
The House also took strong notice of disclosure of Minister for Health Makhdoom Shahabuddin that valuable machines imported for National Hepatitis Control Programme (NHCP) worth billion of rupees were either laying out of order or not operational due to lack of professional technicians.
Responding to a supplementary question Minister for Health informed the House that most of these were either out of order or non-functional due to lack of professional technicians. He further said that the available machines with the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for the purpose of NHCP were also not operational. Chairman Senate Frooq H. Naek expressed serious concerns over the situation and directed the Minister for Health to take steps for making these machines operational and report back to the House in its next session. "This is very serious matter and you are laughing," the Chair snubbed the Minister.
Earlier, many senators raised apprehensions over the negligence on part of the ministry, saying that the people are suffering Hepatitis but the ministry is not taking necessary steps. Senator Zahid Khan also pointed out that 11 machines available in the hospitals of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were also non-functional. To another question Makhdoom Shahabuddin said that the government had not stopped funding the National Aids Control Programme (NACP), adding that the government has approved the revised PC-1 of the NACP in August, 2009 and the total cost of which is Rs 1930.603 million out of which the share of the government is Rs 386.120 million.
In 2010-11, he said, Rs 246.932 million have been allocated for the programme out of which the government share is Rs 123.466 million. He said that an amount of Rs 32.00 million had been released by the government in first and second quarter. Minister for Livestock Mir Humayun Aziz Kurd informed the House that a total of 3, 20489 animals were exported under the commercial export of live animals for meat purposes through open policy during last three years.
In a written reply, he said that the commercial export of live meat animals started in May, 2009, adding that during last two years, 70,440 cattle, 64,849 buffaloes, 1,84,777 goats/sheep, 423 camels were exported. He said that a total of 6,976 animals were exported during 2009-10 through NOC for royal families duly issued by Ministry of Livestock and Dairy Development to foreign dignitaries through diplomatic channel to Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Afghanistan, Omen and Bahrain.
Meanwhile, senators belonging to small provinces raised objections over not observing job quota in foreign missions, and demanded that provincial quota should be allocated in all missions. Senator Khalid Soomro raised the matter, which was also endorsed by Azam Swati and Zahid Khan. Chairman Senate asked the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Nawabzada Malik Amad Khan to convey the concerns of the senators to Minister for Foreign Affairs.