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Tapping true potential of agriculture must to transform economy

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There is huge potential in Pakistani agriculture, which if tapped properly can transform our economy and improve lives of millions of people who presently beneath the poverty line, said Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor.

He said Pakistan in spite of being an agricultural country is still compelled to import food stuffs, which shows misplaced priorities and wrong policies of our administration. To ensure boosting our agro-based economy it is a must that a proper diversification should be introduced in our agriculture and farming sector without wasting any further time.

He said we are still importing wheat, pulses, cooking oil, tea, sugar and other edibles to meet our domestic needs, which is just sad.

He said huge foreign exchange is spending on these imports and it also creates a serious balance of payments issue. He said our current account deficit is on the rise and huge imports of edibles are one of the factors behind it. He said our country has vast lands and long rivers but we have failed to utilize them to make Pakistan a huge grain basket.

He said poor planning at decision making level has resulted in non-introduction of modern farming techniques in Pakistan.

He said agricultural diversification occurs when more species, plant varieties or animal breeds are added to a given farm or farming community and this may include landscape diversification – different crops and cropping systems interspersed in space and time. He said while diversification can be an important element of climate change adaptation, there is surprisingly limited information available that can be used to guide farmers and farming communities as to how best to manage diversification possibilities.

Altaf Shakoor said a timely diversification in our agriculture sector would drastically reduce our import bill. He said in past grand plans were made to start coconut and plam tree farming in our long coastal areas to ensure a good production of cooking oil but then these plans were silently and secretly shelved.

He said similar is the fate of Pakistan Tea Board which was never allowed to work optimally. He said trillions of rupees could be saved if Pakistan is made self sufficient in production of just these two items: cooking oil and tea.He said thanks to our diverse climate we can grow a variety of new crops, fruits, vegetables and flowers.

 

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