By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib on Friday said the federal government is working on a comprehensive plan for uplift of agriculture sector in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Chairing a meeting on communication policy for agriculture sector, Farrukh Habib said that the ministry of Information and Broadcasting and its allied departments would play a key role in development of agriculture sector by disseminating information to the farmers through official media. He added that the government has devised a communication policy to boost the agriculture sector.
He said that agriculture sector is a backbone of a country and a large number of people are linked with it, adding that following directions of the Prime Minister, the government is striving hard for progress of both agriculture and construction sector.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Food Security, Jamshed Iqbal Cheema apprised the meeting that government has increased the allocation for agriculture sector eight times more in the present budget 2021-22 as compared to last fiscal year while steps were being taken to encourage sugar, textile, pesticide, flour and rice industry for better production.
The Special Assistant said farmers were badly exploited during the tenure of past regimes which damaged the agriculture sector, however, the present government has allocated substantial funds of Rs. 680 billion as subsidy. He said the government only fixes the support price of wheat and sugarcane while there are open prices for other crops.
During the past era, he said Rs.90 billion were plundered from the pockets of farmers by paying them low price on sugarcane. “Our first priority is change the life of farmer, while second is the promotion of pollution-free industry.”
He added the government has allocated Rs.10 billion in the next financial year for the purpose.
He informed the meeting that around 60 tons of soybean seeds have been given to the farmers in low temperature areas.
Jamshed said Dera Ismail Khan is turning into a pulses market while research centers are being set up in erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Secretary Information and Broadcasting Shahira Shahid, Principal Information Officer, Sohail Ali Khan, MD APP Mubashir Hassan, Managing Director, PTV, Amir Manzoor, Director News and Current Affairs PTV Mirza Rashid Baig, and other senior officials of the ministry attended the meeting.
The government in this year’s Budget had proposed Rs41.3 billion block allocation for agriculture sector interventions that are expected to bring double-digit increase yields of major crops. Of the total allocations, Rs21.3 billion is for development and Rs20 billion for non-development expenditures.
The allocation, under the agriculture transformation plan, aimed at improving warehousing with Rs8 billion spending, genetic improvement in cattle projects (Rs1.1bln), revision for mechanisation (Rs1.2bln), shrimp farming (Rs1bln), construction of silos (Rs5bln), fertiliser subsidy (Rs12bln) and cotton procurement by Trading Corporation of Pakistan (Rs9bln), according to an official document. The proposed interventions are expected to increase wheat yields by 41 percent, rice (40pc), cotton (65pc), maize (40pc), sugarcane (22pc) and other crops (30pc).
Currently, average yield per acre for wheat in Pakistan is 29 maunds compared to 51 maunds in India. Likewise, the average yields of rice (50 maunds) and sugarcane (656 maunds) are lower than 64 and 796 in India, according to the document.
