The Punjab Agriculture Department (PAD) has finalized the Terms of References (ToRs) of the Punjab Maize Advisory Board aimed at ensuring suitable prices to maize growers and saving the crop from different pests and other diseases.
The ToRs were finalized at a meeting of the Board held here on Friday with the Punjab Agriculture Minister Muhammad Naeem Akhtar Khan Bhabha in the chair. It was attended among others by the Secretary Agriculture, officers of the department, representatives of the poultry association, Rafhan maize products, maize growers and representatives of different growers' organizations.
The meeting, besides giving approval of ToRs, also discussed the proposal of giving portable maize dryers to growers on subsidized rates.
Speaking on the occasion, the Minister directed the agriculture department to construct plinths in grain markets for drying the maize. He also asked the multinational companies to display their seed rate on prominent places in the markets and printing on seed bag ensuring growers could not be deceived on price issue. He also urged them to produce their seed locally to bring its cost down and saving precious foreign exchange on import.
He called upon the feed mills and maize processing industry to make handsome payments to the growers.