Islamabad
Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) will establish farmers market at National Agriculture Research Center to provide them opportunities to directly sell their produces to council’s warehouse without any involvement and safeguarding them form the exploitation of middle man.
In this regard farmers’ clusters would be established which would linked with this market and PARC which was currently purchasing the commodities from open market would purchase from the farmers directly, said Chairman PARC Dr Muhammad Azeem Khan.
Talking to APP he said PARC has became partner with ‘Durast Daam’, an app launched by Islamabad Capital Territory Administration (ICTA) to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to local consumers on wholesale rates, adding that the commodities would be purchased from these farmers markets.
The app would also provide information about the official fixed rates of other essential commodities including fresh fruits and vegetables, whereas the app would provide official fixed rates of the commodities including rice, pulses, poultry, milk, meat, and other eatable items.
The initiative is aimed at promoting and strengthening government’s efforts to promote e-commerce, safeguarding the common man from the effects of artificial price hike and provide proper prices to farmers for their produces, he added. He said PARC has established its link with Durast Daam app on pilot basis, adding that the scope would be further extended to other areas across the country to safeguard a common man form the rising inflationary shocks.
Besides, he said, linkage with app would also help the farmers to sell their produces without any intervention of middle man to get proper prices of their produces and discouraging practices of hording, extra charging and over profiteering.
He said citizens linked with this app could book their orders and Durast Daam would deliver properly packed complete hygienic food items including fruit, vegetables without any extra delivery charges at the door steps of consumers.
Dr Azeem further informed that the outreach of the program was set to extend over 200 household during current season but PARC was determined to extend its technical support to more people than its set targets.—APP
