August 26, 2006	Saturday	Sha'aban 1, 1427

ISLAMABAD, Aug 25: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Friday as the agriculture sector was the backbone of country's economy the government had adopted a holistic approach to improve farm productivity, introduce value addition and augment income of farmers.

He was presiding over a meeting at the PM House on to review the agricultural growth in Pakistan.

The prime minister said agriculture had a 22 pet cent contribution to the GDP and was a major employer in the rural areas where 67 per cent of the population lives.

He said as a result of the government's initiatives total size of agriculture sector now was about $30 billion. Rural poverty has declined from 39.26 per cent in 2000-01 to 28.1 per cent in 2004-05 thereby showing a decline of 11.16 percentage points.

The prime minister said the steps taken by the government for better water management, lining of water courses, supply of better seeds, fertilisers and

pesticides will further accelerate agricultural growth and will

help improve the living standards of the people in the rural areas.

He emphasised the need to facilitate the use of innovative technologies, demand driven research, market infrastructure development and compliance with international quality standards to improve competitiveness in the agricultural sector.

Secretary ministry of food, agriculture and livestock made a presentation about reforming Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (Parc), and restructuring of the Agricultural Price Commission (Apcom).

Fisheries policy and action plan and poultry development policy and action plan were also presented to the prime minister.

He reviewed the performance of each sector and said new challenges required innovative and demand-driven research and knowledge-based development system.—APP