Mohammad Arshad Islamabad
Minister of National Food security and Research, Syed Fakhar Imam has said that Agriculture Transformation Plan (ATP)’s Phase 2 must focus on cotton as well to revive and make cotton a key crop in Pakistan again.
He added that cotton specific subsidies in seeds, pesticide and fertilisers will help cotton growers in Pakistan.
Chairing a meeting on Sub-group of the Economic Advisory Council here minister spoke about the importance of research in the agriculture sector and its transformation to the farmers to maximize potential and outcomes.
The meeting was attended by SAPM on Finance (Dr. Waqar Masood), Advisor to the Chief Minister Punjab on Economic Affairs (Dr. Salman Shah), Executive Director of SDPI (Abid Sulehri), CEO of Pedavar (Asif Sharif), Ghulam Ali Pasha and senior officials from the ministry.
The Minister also signified the dire need of an extension system so that exchange of information is fluid between farmers and research institutions.
The SAPM pressed upon the importance of Marketing for the ATP to be effective. He also unraveled the plan to build storages to store only farmers’ produces.
He said that the training of farmers for better output is necessary and can be done by bringing together farmers and providing extension services from the ATP.
In the meeting it was decided as to how the subgroup will coordinate steps into a consolidated plan regarding the Agriculture Transformation Plan (ATP)’s Phase 2, identify gaps and issues and develop a clear objective so that the Federal and Provincial Governments are on the same page.
