LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Punjab President Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo has said that the government should not purchase the only 4 million tonnes of wheat, but whole the surplus crop and the procurement procedure should be without political affiliation of the ruling party.
Wattoo anticipated the farmers for bumper wheat crop, but feared that the government would inevitably push the poor growers at the mercy of the middle man to their acute disadvantage. He pointed out that growers of rice, sugarcane, maze, wheat and potatoes have been suffering huge losses due to the anti-farmers policies of this government during the last two years. They cannot withstand the burden of the government policies anymore and would be constraint to take extreme step if pushed against the wall, he warned.
He observed that the responsible governments provided subsidies to the farmers to protect their economic interest. He regretted that this government had faulted in this count because it backed out of its promises to compensate the rice growers through subsidies.
The PPP provincial president said that agriculture sector was the backbone of the country’s economy and its contribution to the GDP stood around 25pc adding two thirds population of the country’s livelihood depended on this sector, directly or indirectly.
He pointed out that the textile sector of the country contributed 60pc of the total exports for which agriculture sector provided the raw material at affordable rates enabling it to earn competitive edge in the international market.
