A meeting of the committee formed by the Prime Minister for Agriculture Yield Improvement was held under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Tariq Bashir Cheema on Thursday. The Prime Minister had constituted the committee to suggest measures for agricultural yield improvement and to review steps for availability of quality seeds, inputs and farm machinery. Federal Minister Tariq Bashir Cheema said that this forum provides an opportunity to take a comprehensive stock of the agriculture sector and find ways to improve its yield and productivity. “All effort should be made to uplift the agriculture sector and bring our farmers at par with their international counterparts,” he added. While briefing the committee, Food Security Commissioner Waseem Ul Hassan said that progressive farmers in Pakistan have a higher yield per acre compared to the country’s average. He added that tractors, cultivator, disk harrow, rotavator are used in almost every crop. Deputy Governor State Bank of Pakistan Sima Kamil told the committee that 45% of the financing annual target has been achieved of the PM’s Kissan Package. She added that 444 billion has been disbursed for farming purpose while 401 billion has been disbursed for livestock, benefiting 3.2 million farming households. “The commercial banks will soon start to disburse 56 billion for farm mechanization,” said Sima Kamil. Federal Minister Tariq Bashir Cheema said that he will brief the Prime Minister on the suggestions of the committee. Secretary National Food Security and Research Zafar Hassan said that the ministry has extensively worked on the Track and Trace of seed bags. He hoped it will be functional in 3 months’ time and will help in improving seed quality and availability.
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