MULTAN, Feb 6: Federal agriculture minister Sikander Hayat Bosan has said that the government has been providing a subsidy of Rs11 billion to the growers on urea in order to make the fertilizer available at cheap rates.

The minister was quoted in an official handout to have said that the government had been supplying a 50-kg bag of urea to growers at Rs500 after purchasing it at Rs1,100.

He was addressing at a convention “Sunflower cultivation 2006”, organized at the farm of a progressive grower, Dr Khalid Khokhar, in the outskirts of Multan city on Sunday afternoon. The minister noted that the sunflower cultivation had been replacing the sugarcane cultivation as an alternative cash crop. “For the last few years the production of sunflower has been surpassing the officially set targets,” he added.

He said that the cotton production this year was less than that of last year’s 14.6m bales but it would reach the figure of 13m bales to become the second largest cotton output in history of the country. It may be added here that prior to the year 2004-05 the highest cotton production recorded in the country was 12.8m bales that was picked in the year 1991-92.

Mr Bosan said that prospects of the current wheat crop were also encouraging and the government was taking measures to ensure minimum procurement price of Rs415 per 40-kg to wheat growers. “Progress in the agriculture sector cannot be made without ensuring fair return to the growers of their investment and hard work,” the minister observed.