KARACHI: President Pakistan Kisan Ittehad (PKI) Khalid Mahmood Khokhar has urged the federal government to impose an agricultural emergency in the country for food security in the country.
Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Wednesday, he said that the food security will be in danger, if immediate steps were not taken for the development of the agricultural sector to enhance the crop output.
Khokhar said that the country’s population is increasing by 5 million annually, but the agriculture output growth is on decline. Currently, the food situation in the country is very dangerous as people are dying in queues to get cheap flour and queues of people are several kilometres to get the flour. Despite the fact the country is spending millions of dollars on the import of wheat, pulses, edible oil and cotton, the crisis still persists.
The agriculture sector is being completely ignored by the government and no fresh investment is being witnessed in this sector. “Agriculture sector of Pakistan is in every difficult situation as we are far behind the world in terms of per acre production”, he added.
Pakistan is a producer of golden wheat, but due to shortage and lower production, the country is compelled to import third class wheat, he mentioned.
“We have to adopt world class best practices to increase crop production. Our neighbour country is also giving subsidies to the agricultural sector to facilitate this sector. India is providing subsidies to farmers and even electricity is free for the farmers for eight hours”, Khokhar said.
Pakistan must adopt the models of China, Australia and other countries to develop the agricultural sector. Modern machinery and technology also have to be adopted. Malaysia Brazil also developed by giving priority to the agriculture sector, he added.
The future is very terrible as the farmer gets the price of wheat for Rs 2200 per maund and consumers at Rs 4500 per maund.
If agriculture improves, the economy will improve and law and order will improve, he said adding that the Army Chief is appealing to bring barren areas under cultivation with the help of farmers.
The Pak Army has always helped the nation in case of any natural disasters or emergencies, so this is also a tough time related to food security in the country and at this time the help of Pak Army is also needed to overcome agricultural crisis.
“By imposing an agricultural emergency, the Army Chief should depute the Pakistan Army to ban the formation of housing societies on agricultural areas. The Pakistan Army should also settle the agricultural area and distribute it among small farmers”, Khokhar suggested.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.