ZAHID BAIG
LAHORE (February 05 2010): Federal Minister
for Food and Agriculture Nazar Muhammad
Gondal has said that the government has
increased the wheat procurement target by
one million tons this year and fixed it at
7.5 million tons as against 6.5 million tons
of the last year. He said the government
would fully play its role in facilitating
the growers to dispose off their produce on
good price as well as provision of financing
to make the official procurement drive a
success.
Gondal was speaking at the 115th extra
ordinary general meeting of the Farmers
Associates Pakistan (FAP) held here on
Thursday. He said the government had made it
clear to play its role in wheat procurement.
He said, in order to meet the demand of
gunny bag, a delegation had already left for
Bangladesh and government would fulfil its
responsibility in this regard.
Replying to reservations raised by the
growers on water shortage and Indian water
plans, the minister assured that the
government was seriously taking up water
issue with India and making efforts to
resolve it on priority basis. He said the
federal government and its foreign ministry
had seriously taken up reservations of
Pakistan with India on this issue.
Gondal said that water management could also
be used to end water shortage. He said the
present government was working on a proposal
to 100-percent fund the drip and sprinkle
water system in the country. He said this
scheme would soon be launched in
private-public partnership.
He said that some days back while attending
a conference on energy he asked the
authorities that farmers should be given
uninterrupted power supply in off-peak hours
for irrigation purposes. On Kalabagh Dam, he
said that the government had made it clear
that work on this dam would not be carried
out without consensus of all the four
provinces.
About storage capacity, he said that the
government considers it a basic necessity
and that was why Rs 37 billion had allocated
for it in the current budget. He said that
there were three projects being carried out
at present in this regard. To another query
he hoped that there would be no cut on the
development project of the agriculture. He
said that the present government was working
on all three aspects of agricultural economy
that were sowing, harvesting and
post-harvest.
He also appreciated the FAP proposal of
including farmers' representatives in
trading policy formulation and assured that
he would take up the issue at the
appropriate forum. Gondal stated that it had
been hinted that urea would be used more in
February this year for Rabi crops. He said
that 3,50,000 tons is local production while
over 1,50,000 tons was in reserves and
hopefully no situation of shortage would
occur. He said that one vessel of urea
fertiliser would also reach Pakistan by
first week of March.
He drew the attention of the FAP members
towards the efforts of the government last
year when the prices of cotton were falling
and assure that the government would utilise
all the resources and adopt all the
available technologies to ensure a fair
price to the farmers of its produce. Nazar
Gondal also urged the farmers to pay
attention on crop zoning as it would be
beneficial for all the farmers as it would
help in price stability.
Replying to another query of a progressive
farmer Hamid Malhi that the Pakistan
Agricultural Storage and Services
Corporation (Passco) role should not be
confined to a strategic reserve organisation
rather it's role should be expanded, he said
that he had met the Corporation authorities
Thursday and asked them to make it a
commercial organisation.
He said that the government was also trying
to import different machinery to promote
mechanised farming, including maize and
paddy harvesters and dryers for sunflower
crop. Earlier, Afaq Tiwana of FAP welcoming
the minister raised some points for
government consideration, including
construction of water reservoirs on all the
available sites in the country, promotion of
drip and sprinkle irrigation system, wheat
marketing and procurement, involvement of
farmers in trade policy, bridging gap in
demand and supply of fertilisers, organic
and bio-gas fertilisers, support for setting
up FAP agri-tech college and representation
of farmers in the agricultural policy
institute.
Hamid Malhi urged the government to make the
intervention by the Pakistan Agricultural
Storage and Services Corporation (Passco)
timely. He said that agricultural
productivity is not a problem of Pakistan
but the marketing and the government should
guide farmers on this issue.
Another farmer Farooq Bajwa said that there
was no technology, which could help
agriculture without water. He, however,
claimed that not India but Pakistan
government was also violating Indus Basic
Water Treaty by not feeding the canals of
Eastern Rivers from Western Rivers. He also
said that the government should give rural
areas their full share in the National
Finance Commission (NFC) Award, which is
distributed on population basis.
Other points, which were raised by the
farmers on this occasion, include
elimination of fixed power charges on
agricultural tubewells, uninterrupted power
supply for agri tubewells. While FAP also
floated a proposal that it should be allowed
a joint venture with the Passco under which,
it would provide 100,000 tons of wheat to
the Corporation in bulk.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2010
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