LAHORE: Agriculture Republic, a think tank formed to discuss issues faced by the agriculture and livestock has urged the government to include representatives from farmers too in the National Coordination Committee (NCC) on Agriculture Transformation to get actual feedback from the actual stakeholders of the sector and devise an effective consensus plan to tackle the hardships and put the sector on the path of progress and prosperity.
Co-founder of the platform, Aamer Hayat Bhandara while talking to Business Recorder said that there is a need to apply existing knowledge of effective interventions targeting agricultural production and farm level economic factors which are without any doubt is with the 97 percent farmers under 50 acres of land.
“I believe, on the ground, real farmer input in the NCC on Agriculture Transformation are more effective than many other members of the committee,” Bhandara said, here on Saturday.
He said there are key agricultural commodities for many countries but Pakistan is a country wherewith the best soul and agro ecological zones, almost every crop Pakistani farmers mostly small to medium are growing. So their voice should be considered to influence the production towards healthier options particularly in the newly launched Agriculture Transformation Plan, he added.
Bhandara said the existing members of the NCC are those, who may have great knowledge about the subject but less or no practical exposure and experience of the field and the problems faced by the farming community and the other stakeholders of the agriculture sector in Pakistan. He, however, appreciated the appointment of Jamshed Iqbal Cheema, a known agriculturist and an advocate of self-sufficiency in the food sector, as the head to lead the NCC.
“I believe, progressive but from the small and medium scale farming community in the NCC will help the committee to understand the real problems the sector is facing and make the plan successful with doable and effective solutions and interventions,” he concluded.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021