Caretaker Excise and Communications Minister Bilal Afzal has said that agriculture is the backbone of our economy and the dream of prosperity cannot be fulfilled without its development. He was co-chairing the first meeting of the Chief Minister’s Agriculture Task Force at the Ministers Block along with Industries Minister SM Tanveer on Monday.
Secretary Agriculture Iftikhar Sahu and other officials briefed on the performance of the task force on the occasion.
Bilal Afzal said that emergency measures must be taken to solve the problems of the agriculture sector and farmers should be given easy loans without interest. He said that a fund should be established in the agriculture department for easy loans at the pattern of Akhuwat Organization.
The provincial minister further said that there was a need to increase the use of modern technology in agriculture sector to cater the contemporary necessaries.
He said, “It is important to get the support of international companies for quality seeds while it is important to bring international standard research and technology in different fields of the agriculture sector.”
Bilal Afzal said that a strong and integrated infrastructure was necessary for the development of agriculture, for which special attention is being paid to the construction and repair of roads across Punjab so that farmers do not face any problem in bringing their agricultural produce to the near markets.
