June 07, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 21, 1428

HYDERABAD, June 6: Yields of agriculture produce can enhance substantially if the government adopts a proper strategy, says the Sindh Abadgar Board in its pre-budget proposals.

Proper planning and a focussed approach in agriculture sector will help enhance foreign exchange earnings, provide food security, reduce trade deficit, increase export and alleviate poverty, said the Board’s president Abdul Majeed Nizamani at a press conference.

The government’s support policy was commendable but it required fine tuning to bring the prices of agriculture produce to sustainable levels, he said.

It was an irony that the government policy on water storages had been opposed by provinces, civil society and growers alike, although water was the basic element of any crop, he said.

He called for the lining of distributaries and suggested yearly allocation of Rs25 billion for the purpose as 77 per cent of land at the tail-end was facing irrigation water deficiency.

Nizamani said about 950 square miles of coastal belt was ideal for palm tree cultivation of which six million acres can be developed for the purpose.

He demanded setting up of palm oil processing units in Thatta and Hub; signing of pre-sowing contracts with growers; and granting 25 per cent subsidy on fertilisers.

He said Pakistan should make use of bio-fuels as was being practiced in the US, China and Germany.

The FOA too, had estimated that it can provide quarter of world energy needs.

The SAB president said bio-fuels and bio-gas can be produced from sugarcane, corn, rapeseed and livestock dung.

He proposed a sustainable policy for at least three years which will stop fertiliser and pesticides hoarders and speculators from exploiting farmers. Nizamani said the government must provide level-playing field to growers as cost of production here was higher than India.

Power connection was free in India while in Pakistan it was Rs1,40,750 with a pole and transformer and added: “The rate of electricity there was Rs1 per unit while here it was Rs2.7.

Agriculture sector was reeling under heavy taxes both direct and indirect said the SAB president and proposed doing away with the GST.

The government should create extensive infrastructure in rural areas, improve quality of farm produce, and increase the working budget of the department to comply with the WTO regulations.

Nizamani said the government had not formulated horticulture policy as yet despite 15 per cent increase in Pakistani mango consumption in Europe, alone.

The policy should focus on mango, dates and tomato he said and added: Pakistani dates will capture South Asian markets within six years.

He asked the government to encourage development of hybrid and other seeds. Pakistan lags far behind in provision of health, education and social sector, said Nizamani. Pakistan loses 1.4 per cent of the GDP due to bad roads.

The country needed Rs258 billion as farm credit while the disbursement was only Rs160 billion, he said. He called for making private banks more farmer-friendly.

The SAB president said that Pakistan had lot of potential to become milk and meat exporting country and to exploit this potential, every district should have a laboratory and more veterinary doctors as the present ratio is dismally low - one doctor for 78,000 animals.