Federal and provincial agricultural ministries have failed to control locust swarm in the country especially in Punjab, said Farmers Bureau of Pakistan (FBP) and demanded the resignations of the ministers concerned.
FBP President Dr Zafar Hayyat on Wednesday said that the agriculture sector has badly been ignored and mismanaged by the government. The Locust which entered into Pakistan almost a year ago, has grown in its number and posing a big threat to the different crops under cultivation.
The issue has been raised with the concerned persons but it seems that the leadership, the federal and provincial agriculture ministers didn’t have the capacity and vision to address the things in depth. The govt has recently realized the seriousness of the situation but we believe they lost the precious time in which with little resources the locust attack could have been controlled. Looking at the situation now, and the extent to which locust have spread, seems will take of lot of resources to control its growth and total elimination.
We therefore demand the resignation of current federal and provincial minister’s, especially of Punjab who badly failed to comprehend the whole situation, and demand the government to appoint proper knowledgeable leadership who understands the issue of agriculture in depth.
Another important issue which requires immediate attention is the cotton crop. Cotton crop had very important role in agriculture as well as the value added industrial sector. The govt. failed to realize the serious situation into which cotton crop is and did not include it in its Agriculture Emergency programme. We demand that Prime Minister should immediately take notice of it and this crop should be included in PM Agriculture emergency program and corrective measures should be taken to save this important cash crop and the industry.
Farmers already are into deep financial crunch. Every step should be taken to reduce their cost of production. This year corn growers suffered a lot in their Kharif crop and Rabi crop is in the process of cultivation. The private seed companies raised the prices of the seed despite the fact that farmers suffered huge losses in their Kharif crop.
We demand from the govt. that all the private companies who are importing corn seed should immediately start producing, at least 25 percent of the seed, locally and should ultimately produce 100 percent within the country, in some agreed timeline.
