October 21, 2001	Sunday	Shaba'an 3, 1422

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FAISALABAD, Oct 20: Self-sufficiency in the agriculture sector could only be achieved by framing farmer friendly policies, said Shafi Niaz, adviser to the chief executive on food, agriculture and livestock.

Mr Niaz was addressing the participants of a national seminar on “Deregulation of agricultural prices” held at the University of Agriculture on Saturday.

He said the country achieved the growth target because better support price of wheat was fixed. However, he admitted that farmers had many complaints.

He said all countries were making efforts to adjust themselves according to the commitments made by their governments under the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Agreement on Agriculture (AOA).

He said the AOA commitments required to be implemented by member countries by 2004 through reduction of import and export related tariffs and phasing out of support and subsidies.

Mr Niaz said the policies maker must have before them well-analyzed facts and figures giving different options for decision making. In this connection he underlined the role of agriculture universities.

He said economic research in these institutions needed to be greatly strengthened and improved. Similarly, teaching ability has to be upgraded which would mean strengthening the staff in quality and probably in number, he added.

University of Agriculture vice-chancellor Prof Dr Riaz Husain Qureshi, Agriculture Price Commission, Islamabad, chairman Dr Abdus Salam and university’s director of research Dr Jahangir Sial also addressed the seminar.