PHOTO: REUTERS
ISLAMABAD: In a bid to improve the country’s socio-economic prosperity, Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan on Thursday called on provincial governments to increase investment in the agriculture sector.
Speaking at a meeting of the Federal Committee on Agriculture, he noted that investment in agriculture had been declining in provinces for the past few years.
“Provinces must increase their investment in the agriculture sector. If required, the federal government can help fill the financing gap,” he said. The minister asked for efficient utilisation of agriculture resources by adopting modern technologies, besides establishing realistic marketing systems and well-linked domestic and external markets.
Bosan called for establishing distribution networks and framing liberal market policies with minimum trade barriers and limitations.
He was of the view that agriculture for the past few years had not been so profitable for the resource-poor farmers, adding they were suffering from economic losses due to the drop in prices of commodities in the international market.
He stressed that provincial agriculture departments must strengthen their research and marketing system for the growth of minor crops, which would ensure prosperity of farming communities.
The government, he said, hoped that the economy could grow with the help of agriculture and it must benefit the poor and should be nutrition-sensitive in order to reduce various forms of malnutrition.
He insisted that the Ministry of National Food Security was extending all possible support to provinces for creating an enabling environment to achieve food security in the country.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 21st, 2017.
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