SARGODHA, Feb 4: Governor Khalid Maqbool said on Saturday the government was striving to impart technical education to farmers and equip them with the latest implements to enhance crop production.

“The government is also focusing on controlling electricity tariff and POL prices instead of giving them subsidy,” he was speaking at an international seminar on “Strategic priorities in agriculture and rural development for poverty alleviation in Pakistan” held at the University of Sargodha.

He said wheat was being purchased from the farmers to save them from exploitation of black marketeers.

The growers, said Mr Maqbool, were reaping the fruit of their efforts only in the present set-up as the succeeding governments had failed to accord due importance to the agriculture sector. He called upon the agriculturists to play their role in improving the country’s economy and introduce farmer-friendly policies.

“We are facing drought,” he said, and hastened to add that the Musharraf regime was determined to construct all big and small dams till 2016. He said some anti-Pakistan political parties always exploited the poor segments of society but the government was safeguarding their rights.

The governor appreciated the projects the Sargodha university had undertaken and the role of vice-chancellor Dr Riazul Haq Tariq in this regard.

The vice-chancellor announced that the university would launch medical and agriculture programmes this year as work on establishment of its college was apace.

Prof Dr S Hiroshima of a Japanese university dilated upon the issue of poverty reduction strategy in rural areas with special reference to the nature of land market behaviour in South Asia and Japan. Earlier, a US rural development economist read out his thesis on Pakistan’s wheat policy.

Local economists, including Dr Zakir Husain, Dr Abdul Saboor and Waqar Akram, made a joint presentation on strategies for agriculture and rural development to alleviate poverty in the Indus Basin while Dr Sohail J. Malik presented his analysis on determinants of rural poverty.