MULTAN: Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan Friday said special centers and control rooms had been established in the wheat growing areas to address the complaints of the people pertaining to the “Wheat Purchasing Campaign.”
“Even last grain of wheat will be purchased from farmers,” the minister said while addressing a “Fruit fly Control Conference” organized by Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) here. According to a PARC statement, the minister said the conventional negative role of middleman had been eliminated by purchasing wheat directly from farmers to provide them maximum benefit to them.
The minister said the government was working for the development of agriculture sector on priority basis. It had been encouraging all such programmes aimed at growth promotion in agriculture sector.
The minister said the government in coordination with farmers and other stakeholders had successfully eliminated the fruit-fly disease which helped boost mango exports from the country during the last season.
He said that Pakistan was producing best mangoes, however it had to face export problems due the fruit-fly disease in the past.
He said the government had been providing fruit-fly control technology to the farmers to overcome the disease which would further boost the exports from the country.
He said the government had recently amended the seed act to ensure that farmers are provided certified and healthy seed to enhance healthy and nutritious food production.
The minister warned that the government would take strict action against those who are found guilty of selling defective seeds to the farmers.
He said the farmer-friendly policies of the current government had benefited the farmers to a great extent adding that the government would carry on these policies to uplift the farming community.
Agriculture scientists and farmers including Tariq Khan, Ameer Hamza, Dr Anjum Akbar, Dr. Ahsan-ul-Haq, Dr. Abdul Ghaffar, Haji Azam Malik and Malik Shafi also addressed the conference and highlighted the importance of advanced technologies for the promotion of agriculture in the country.
