Federal Minister for Finance Senator Ishaq Dar chaired a meeting to review agricultural products prices in the country and the strategy to ensure agriculture sector growth at the Finance Ministry on Saturday.
He said that agriculture continues to play a central role in the Pakistan’s economy with pivotal impact on the socio-economic set-up. It accounts for over 21 percent of GDP, while employing 45 percent of the country’s labour force, he added.
The Finance Minister said that a holistic approach is needed for development of agricultural sector in Pakistan. He said that agricultural policy should aim towards small farmers to combat poverty in rural areas. He said that tackling poverty demanded fundamental rethinking and innovation. He emphasized that National Agriculture Policy must be formulated at the earliest for optimum use of natural resources to make the country self-sufficient in food.
In order to meet the challenges of food insecurity and malnutrition, it was imperative that latest technological advancements and innovative techniques should be employed to improve the productivity of land, emphasized the Finance Minister. The Finance Minister said that in order to control prices of agricultural products middleman’s role should be managed in coordination with the provinces.
Federal Minister for National Food Security & Research, Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan said that Pakistan has a great potential in the sector of agriculture. Although, constitutionally, agriculture is a provincial responsibility, national issues such as the import and export of agricultural inputs and products, price setting, standardization and quarantine issues, national research and inter provincial issues such as the rehabilitation, come under the ambit of the Federal Government.
He informed that the Ministry of National Food Security is sharing experiences and innovative ideas amongst farmers and agricultural researchers as well as private sector which will boost up the growth of agriculture sector. He mentioned that the Ministry is working on a number of projects to make modern agricultural technology accessible to farmers and growers so that they could increase the yield of their farming fields.
On the upward trend in the prices of potato the Finance Minister was informed that there is almost 1.1 million tons of surplus potato in the Country and role of provincial governments is important to discoverage hoarding and manipulation. The Finance Minister agreed on devising a mechanism to control the prices in coordination with provinces and next meting in this regard will be held at the Finance Ministry during next week.
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