LAHORE: Agriculture Republic, a think tank to brainstorm problems relating to agriculture and suggest remedies, has asked the caretaker premier to immediately constitute a body to resolve the issues being faced by the agricultural sector, including the increasing cost of production and threats posed by climate change.

Agriculture Republic co-founder Aamer Hayat Bhandara while talking to Business Recorder here on Tuesday observed that the next four months were very crucial not only for the overall economy of the country but also for agriculture and food security. It would also be crucial because of the likely transition of power from one political regime to the next.

“The current caretaker government has no portfolio of agriculture or national food security ministry and the coming four months are going to be crucial due to the harvesting of the three main export crops – cotton, rice, maize and sesame,” he said and added Pakistan’s main staple, wheat crop would also be cultivated during the tenure of this interim government. Due to the government intervention in its support price, important decisions would have to be taken before time as the current economic and climatic conditions had made the farming situation harder than ever.

“We are already short of food grains and most food items and several inputs including fertilizers and chemicals we import to grow food,” he claimed.

Aamer further said that severe impacts of climate change, rising input costs and poorly managed price control systems of fertilizer and seeds would create problems for farmers to grow good crops and increase productivity. In the present difficult time, it was very important for the government to take timely measures to save the agricultural sector and the farmers at a lower level otherwise the food crisis would be worse in future, he warned.

Suggesting a way out of this situation, the Agriculture Republic co-founder said that the caretaker PM should immediately constitute a body under his own chairmanship to solve the economic problems relevant to the agriculture sector including the cost of production and threats posed by climate change.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023