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Measures urged for rapid
growth of agriculture sector
Hyderabad—The President, Sindh Chamber of Agriculture Syed
Qamar-uz-Zaman Shah has called upon the government to initiate
concrete measures for rapid growth of agriculture sector by
providing maximum incentives to growers. Addressing the members of
the executive committee of the chamber here on Sunday, Syed
Qamar-uz-Zaman, who is also the President of the Chambers of
Agriculture of Pakistan has emphasised the need of granting subsidy
on fertilizers, pesticides, electricity and diesel to growers in
order to reduce the expanses of crop production. He also called upon
the State Bank of Pakistan to ask all commercial banks to grant
agriculture loans to growers with facility of eight percent markup.
The meeting expressed its deep concern over the increase in the rate
of fertilizers and demanded the government to grant subsidy and
ensure the provision of phosphate fertilizers so that the growers
could be utilised the same during Kharif crops. The meeting also
demanded incentives in gypsum fertilizer in order to encourage the
use of same fertilizer in crop cultivation. The meeting was attended
among others by Akhund Ghulam Muhammad Siddiqui, Mir Murad Ali
Talpur, Anwar Bachani, Agha Nasarullah, Muhammad Khan Sarejo, Haji
Shafih Muhammad Leghari, Mir Imdad Talpur and Nawaz Ali Samejo.
Meanwhile, the monthly meeting of Sindh Abadgar Board, held here
Saturday under the presidentship of its president Abdul Majeed
Nizamani while congratulating the formation of new government hoped
that the problems of the agriculture community would be considered
accordingly. The meeting hoped that the new government would make
all out efforts for the restoration of the dignity of the country,
constitution, democratic norms and economic of the country.
While reviewing the decision of fixing the support price of wheat,
the meeting observed it insufficient and observed that it could not
stop smuggling and hoarding of wheat as well as the culture of
commission and corruption in its import. The meeting stated that 80
percent of the economy of the country is based on agriculture
production therefore maximum incentives are needed for its rapid
growth. The expected shortage of flour will force the government to
import three million tons of wheat in the months of September and
October and in order to avert such situation, the meeting emphasized
the need of adopting concrete measures to discourage the hoarding,
black marketing and smuggling of wheat for the betterment of
agriculture sector and country’s economy. The meeting demanded the
fixation of wheat support price as Rs. 1000/- per 40 kilograms,
granting subsidy on wheat to consumer, bringing the prices of
chemical fertilizers at the level of January 2008 and releasing of
irrigation water for Kharif crops according to agreement.—APP
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