imageUMERKOT: Federal Minister for Food, Security and Research, Sikandar Hayat Bosan has said that government is ready to address food issue, if any, in Tharparkar district as sufficient wheat stock is available in the country.

Addressing the growers at a ceremony and later talking to media on Friday, the Minister said that the wheat would be transported whenever, Sindh government needed for the people of the province.

He highlighted the efforts being made by the federal government for making the country self-sufficient in agriculture produce adding that the package announced by the government would provide maximum benefits to growers of the country.

The Minister informed that Research Institute for Red Chilies in Kunri would soon start functioning and would be helpful in producing quality products with control of diseases.

Due to high cost of production, the agriculture sector was facing many hardships and growers particularly cotton growers were bearing losses while exporting their produces, however, the government was making efforts to provide maximum relief to growers community, he said.

The Federal Minister said that majority of parliamentarians belonged to agriculture sector but they had never raised voice for the improvement of agriculture sector.

After 18th Amendment, he said that agriculture was then provincial subject but provincial governments were not making efforts for uplift of the agriculture sector.

The Chairman of Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture, Senator Sayed Muzafar Hussain Shah while addressing the participants of the ceremony said that due to influence of cotton mafia, the country had been forced to import cotton despite being the bumper crops in the country.

He said by importing cotton from other countries, growers were bearing huge loss.

He informed that last year 20 percent less production of cotton recorded in Punjab but growers were paid Rs 1800 per 40 kg there.

He suggested an effective coordination among growers and agriculture experts and scientists in order to address the challenges in this sector.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2016

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