Minister for Agriculture Punjab, Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh said on Saturday that God had blessed Pakistan with natural resources but these resources needed to be exploited to make Pakistan a developed country. The minister was addressing an oath taking ceremony of office bearers of Pakistan Society of Agronomy and national seminar on Agronomy at Ayub Agricultural Research Institute.
The minister stressed the need for combined efforts of all wings of agriculture department to solve numerous problems faced by the farmers. He informed about the efforts of Punjab government to develop agriculture on modern lines and stated that the country resources were more than sufficient to fulfil requirements of the country and they could also export agriculture products to foreign countries. In order to harness export potential of the Punjab province the government was introducing agriculture products of the province to foreign countries, he added.
Elucidating the problems faced by small farmers the minister added that among other problems paucity of funding was the main stumbling block in increasing per acre yield of small growers. He asked the scientists to develop technology, which could solve problems of the small growers.
Scarcity of irrigation water and water logging and salinity were the other problems, which need special attention of agricultural scientists. Dr Mubarak, Chief Executive, Punjab Agriculture Research Board (PARB) said that technology package developed by agronomists if adopted by growers could change their fate. Zahid Atta Cheema, Ex-President of Society also addressed the seminar.