Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf held a Brainstorming Session at PTI Chairman Secretariat Lahore to formulate alternate agriculture policy for provinces.
The exercise is part of the strategy to prepare the party for governance in the wake of election victory in 2018. Agriculture experts from KPK and Punjab participated in the day-long session to explore short, medium and long term packages to enhance agricultural productivity, reduce cost of inputs and make Extensions and Research farmers??? friendly.
Inaugurating the Session, Mohammad Sarwar, Organiser PTI Punjab, said that PTI did not believe only in criticism. As a policy, the party also believes in offering alternative strategies. Agriculture like other sectors holds the key to development in the country. Unfortunately, this sector has suffered and continued to do so, due to massive neglect of the government. In consultation with all stakeholders, PTI would like to present a way forward to improve per acre yield, reduce wastage of water and efficiently encounter the adversarial impact of climate change.
He was of the opinion that the government must complete seed regulatory framework, instilling confidence in international companies that the Intellectual Property rights will be fully observed in Pakistan.
Dr. Arif Alvi, Organiser PTI Sindh, in his brief policy statement expressed PTI???s consistent support to alleviate farmers??? grievances. He proposed that experts may consider suggesting crop insurance policy and establishment of co-operatives covering economically feasible land holding to make better use of the existing structures.
He also advised experts to explore telemetry system to quantify water discharge without errors from river heads to promote provincial harmony.
The experts from KPK delineated on the recently approved KPK Agriculture Policy 2015. They explained in details their initiatives called Model Farm Centre, under which farmers are appointed members on payment of token fee in order to benefit from services, ranging from grant of Rs. 40 lakh per centre, information about agriculture input prices, dissemination of technical details for crop cultivation.
The consensus was that small landholders need government support, both in terms of credits and transfer of skills to improve agriculture productivity. The key factor will be to suggest policies which are practical and deliverable.
The agreement was reached to suggest establishing model villages with focus on developing two main crop of the area. The model village will serve as an integrated unit of production, marketing and possibly, if required, for processing.
The proposed policy will bridge the gap between rhetoric and practices, benefiting small land-holders who contribute 93% of the farming community in Pakistan. In specific, the experts felt that Pakistan should address the diminishing irrigation water resources urgently and where required the government should intervene to change agricultural crops cultivation patterns.
