The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry has hailed the government for unveiling Rs.309 billion Emergency Program for the development of agriculture sector as it would improve agricultural productivity, reduce dependence on imports of agro products, improve living standards of farmers, reduce poverty and unemployment from rural areas and pave way for the sustainable economic development of the country.
Ahmed Hassan Moughal President, Rafat Farid Senior Vice President and Iftikhar Anwar Sethi Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that last year, Pakistan spent $4 billion on the import of agricultural products, which showed that agriculture needed more focus of the government to make Pakistan a self-sufficient country in agricultural products. They said that Pakistan has great potential to improve productivity of wheat, rice, cotton, sugarcane and oil seeds by utilizing latest technology and methods. They said that improved agricultural productivity would help the country to meet the needs of its people and also earn significant foreign exchange by promoting exports of agro products. They urged that government should use this program to achieve these goals.
Ahmed Hassan Moughal said that under Agricultural Emergency Program, federal government in cooperation with provincial governments should take special measures to ensure uninterrupted power supply, water conservation and pest management for agriculture sector. He said it will reduce production cost and improve per acre yield of agriculture sector.
ICCI President said that Pakistan has good potential to earn billions of dollars by promoting exports of dairy and meat products and urged that Agriculture Emergency Program should focus on strengthening the dairy industry. He said that per animal milk in Pakistan was many times less as compared to developed countries and emphasized that new program should focus on addressing this issue. He said that Pakistan’s agriculture sector was facing water shortage issue and stressed that more small and medium size dams should be constructed under the new program across the country to cope with this issue. He was of the view that promoting agriculture sector would also help in promoting industrial and other sectors of the economy and added that federal government in consultation with provincial governments should develop a comprehensive strategy to develop agriculture sector on modern lines.