Punjab Agriculture Minister Syed Hussain Jahanian Gardezi Wednesday said that the PTI government has provided interest-free loans of Rs. 45 billion to ensure food security and increase production per acre to the farmers in the last three years so that farmers could purchase agricultural inputs in time.
Punjab Minister for Agriculture Syed Hussain Jahanian Gardezi expressed these views while addressing the participants of a conference on food security here at a local hotel. Federal Minister for National Food and Security Syed Fakhar Imam also attended.
“In addition, a subsidy of Rs. 4.40 billion has been provided to farmers for the supply of certified seeds and modern agricultural machinery,” said the minister.
he said that Pakistan is the 10th largest country in the world in terms of food production but with it it is the sixth largest country in the world in terms of growing population with a population of 2.2% per annum. He said the increasing agricultural production per acre to meet the nutritional needs of a growing population is a matter of urgency.
The Minister Agriculture said that the present government has taken effective measures to ensure better prices of agricultural commodities to the farmers and last year a support price of Rs 1,800 per 40kg for wheat and Rs 200 per 40 kg for sugarcane has been ensured.
“The process of registration of 146 new markets has been completed under Punjab Agricultural Marketing Regulatory Authority (PAMRA) to increase the income and profit of farmers while farmer platform has been set up in 105 agricultural markets of the province on the direction of Chief Minister Punjab. Where farmers are selling their produce directly without middlemen, he added.
Addressing the conference, Syed Hussain Jahanian Gardezi said that food growth in Pakistan is 1.5% per annum there is dare need to increase it. Water scarcity in Pakistan also leads to a decline in crop yield per acre. Therefore, the present government has provided modern drip sprinkler system at a cost of Rs.3.62 billion and installation of solar system has been completed at a cost of over Rs. 429 million on 50% subsidy. Finally, the Punjab Minister for Agriculture paid tribute to the organizers of the conference for holding a conference on a national issue and said that the participating researchers, researchers and scientists and academia would work together to come up with such a strategy which will help ensure food stability.
Earlier, former Federal Secretary Information and Broadcasting / Vice President Center for Global and Strategic Studies Ashfaq Ahmad Khan Gondal, representative of Hanns Seidle Foundation Dr. Stephen Codella and Vice Chancellor MNS Agricultural University Multan Dr. Asif Ali and other speakers also addressed the conference. The technical sessions were also held in the conference in which speakers reviewed the food security situation.
