Prime Minister Imran Khan met with a delegation of farmers from Southern Punjab. The Prime Minister underlined the importance of solving problems of genuine farmers. He said,” Immediate steps in collaboration with the irrigation department of Punjab should be taken to stop pilferage of water in the canals.” He emphasised on decrease of middlemen’s role enabling the farmers to get good price of their products. Prime Minister further directed the authorities concerned to invoke relevant laws to deal with cartelisation and to shun hoarding practices. Earlier the Prime Minister was informed that it is likely that Rabi crop will be affected due to 28% shortage of water in reservoirs. The Prime Minister said that this shortage can be met by stopping pilferage of water in the canals. The Prime Minister was apprised that Pakistan is blessed with a rich natural resource base for agriculture. However, despite having one of the world-best alluvial soils, diversified weather conditions, the best irrigation system and assiduous farmers, we could not fully harness the potential of our agriculture sector mainly because of misplaced priorities of the previous governments. The Prime Minister said that in order to explore full potential of the agriculture sector, the government has launched Agriculture Emergency Program worth Rs. 277 billion, an unprecedented allocation for the sector. This initiative is aimed at enhancing the productivity of wheat, rice, sugarcane, pulses, and oilseed crops; besides developing livestock and water sectors. Our government is also extending Kissan Cards to farmers, especially the smaller ones, for modernizing the agriculture sector. Through this card, farmers will get benefits of various government programs, such as crop loans and subsidies on fertilizers, seeds and pesticides. Due to Government’s favorable policies, the production of wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane, potato, onion and groundnut has increased to a record level despite COVID pandemic. The meeting was also attended by Minister for National Food Security Syed Fakhar Imam, Industries Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar and Energy Minister Muhammad Hammad Azhar.
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