ISLAMABAD; Prime Minister Imran Khan has said the government is extending Kissan cards to farmers, especially the smaller ones, for modernising the agriculture sector.

Talking to a delegation of farmers from southern Punjab, the prime minister said that through Kissan cards, farmers will get benefits of various government programmes, such as crop loans, and subsidies on fertilisers, seeds, and pesticides.

He also underlined the importance of solving problems of the genuine farmers.

He said that immediate steps in collaboration with the Irrigation Department of Punjab should be taken to stop pilferage of water in the canals, after he was informed that water shortage is feared to affect the Rabi crops.

The premier also underscored the need for lowering middlemen’s role, enabling the farmers to get good prices of their produce. He directed the authorities concerned to invoke relevant laws to deal with cartelisation and hoarding practices.

Earlier, the prime minister was informed that it is likely that Rabi crop will be affected due to 28 percent shortage of water in reservoirs.

The prime minister said that this shortage can be met by stopping pilferage of water in canals. The prime minister was apprised that Pakistan is blessed with a rich natural resource base for agriculture.

However, despite having one of the world’s best alluvial soils, diversified weather conditions, the best irrigation system, and assiduous farmers, we could not fully harness the potential of our agriculture sector mainly because of misplaced priorities of the previous governments, he was told.

The prime minister said that in order to explore full potential of the agriculture sector, the government has launched Agriculture Emergency Programme worth Rs277 billion, an unprecedented allocation for the sector.

This initiative is aimed at enhancing the yields of wheat, rice, sugarcane, pulses, and oilseed crops; besides developing livestock and water sectors.

He said that due to government’s favourable policies, the production of wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane, potato, onion and groundnut has increased to a record level despite Covid-19.

The meeting was also attended by Minister for National Food Security Fakhar Imam, Industries Minister Khusro Bakhtiar, and Energy Minister Muhammad Hammad Azhar.

This article first appeared in Business Recorder on Nov 12, 2021.