Government urged to allocate Rs 100 billion for agriculture sector development

Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) has urged the government to allocate at least Rs 100 billion for the development of the agricultural sector, declare agricultural education compulsory and free up to matric and withdraw the decision of imposing General Sales Tax (GST) on agricultural inputs.
The Board also gave an ultimatum to the government till June 20 and said if their demands are not met by that time then the Board will ask the farmers to adopt a novel way of protest for three days to press the rulers for acceptance of these demands.
Growers would also stage sit in after these three days if the government failed to give any positive response to the demands of the Board, said KBP Central President Sardar Zafar Hussein Khan, Vice President Sarfraz Ahmad Khan and Deputy Secretary General Chaudhry Akhtar Farooq Mayo, while addressing a press conference here on Saturday.
KBP leaders claimed that levy of 16 percent GST on agricultural inputs would result in increase of Rs 4000 in per acre expenses. They feared that it might result in 10 percent reduction in per acre yield and 30 percent hike in the food prices. They said that our farmers were paying more than their counterparts in the neighbouring countries.
They complained that the government was paying meagre amounts for development of agriculture sector, which has $13.50 billion share in $20 billion export of the country. They also said that if 30,000 employees of the provincial agriculture department were given selection grade then they could serve the farmers in a better way. They claimed that no fund had been allocated for agriculture research in the budget.
They urged the government to resolve all these problems and also disburse agricultural loans on lower interest rates, take revolutionary steps to construct new dams in the country and provide latest technology to the growers for increase per acre yield. Sardar Zafar and Sarfraz Khan said that in case their demands were not met by June 23 then growers would stage sit-in on roads through out the country and their movement would prove more effective than the movement of young doctors.