KISAN BORD PAKISTAN DEMANDS FOR FRIENDLY ATTITUDE FOR AGRECULTURE.7-1-2014

KISAN BORD PAKISTAN DEMANDS FOR FRIENDLY ATTITUDE FOR AGRECULTURE.7-1-2014
RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) Chief Sardar Zafar Hussein Khan has stressed the need for devising farmer-friendly policies to not only promoting the agriculture but also to keep running wheels of different industries and taking full advantage of GSP plus status.

Speaking to a representative of growers from Southern and Central Punjab on Monday, Sardar Zafar Hussein admitted that overcoming the energy crisis was essential to keep the industrial wheel moving but at the same time resolving the issues and difficulties faced by the growers were also very much need of the hour.

He said farming community was faced with numerous challenges such difficulties at the time of selling wheat at government procurement centers, exploitation by ginning factories of cotton growers and depriving from actual price by the sugar millers.

He claimed that the growers never ever get real price of their product but they have been forced to continue with his profession despite all odds. He said that grower is lucky who could get the actual amount mentioned on cane procurement receipt (CPR) by any sugar mill. Otherwise rest had to run post to pillar till the next sugarcane crop arrives.

KBP Central President said that agriculture could progress in real terms when it would become priority of the rulers. He said that the government had to devise farmer-friendly policies and without resolving the difficulties of the growers we could not reach to our destination.

He said dream of agriculture development could not be materialized unless withdrawing GST on agricultural inputs, provision of quality certified seed and ensuring timely availability of fertilizers.

He proposed that the government should constitute a task force on agriculture with representatives of growers’ organization in it and having people from agricultural development bank, seed, agro chemical companies, water experts and specialist agricultural scientists on wheat, sugarcane and cotton crops.

‘Government should devise a new farmer-friendly policy in the light of proposals by this task force and ensure its implementation in letter and spirit, otherwise we can loose the chance of taking full advantage of GSP plus status,’ Sardar Zafar feared.