LAHORE, April 25: The Agriculture Department has proposed an allocation of Rs2 billion for the next Annual Development Plan (ADP) against current year’s Rs1.1 billion, says Punjab Agriculture Secretary Fayyaz Bashir.

Briefing members of the Agriculture Journalists Association (AJA), he said Punjab agriculture research and marketing was going through a paradigm shift and the private sector being involved in both sectors in a big way.

Flanked by Dr Mubarik Ali, the chief executive of the Punjab Agriculture Research Board (PARB), the secretary said country needed a credible marketing system, especially for perishable fruits and vegetables. Hitherto, he said, all 326 grain and horticulture markets in the province were being run by the public sector, adding that the fact had been part of the problem rather than solution.

Being cognizant of the situation, he said, the government had decided to involve private sector and limit the market committees to their respective markets rather than allowing their control over the whole municipal jurisdiction. The policy, he said, was aimed at making these markets efficient, accountable and less corrupt. The relevant legislation might soon be enacted, he added.

Giving credit of the bumper staple food (wheat and rice) and cash crops (cotton and sugarcane) during the last few years, also to the government policies, besides farmers’ toil and kind weather, he hoped the country would have at least one million ton additional wheat this year, which could be exported. Similarly, he said, gram crop had also registered a 25 per cent increase this year.

Dilating upon initiatives in research sector, Dr Mubarik said its corporatisation would be complete this month, and new companies would be registered. To begin with, five out of total 31 research institutes would be corporatised, he added. The five institutes, which would become companies, would be engaged in research on cotton, sugarcane, rice, mango and citrus as private sector a keen interest in them, he said. All of them were being exported but for cane, as the sugar industry was very strong within the country, he said.

The corporatisation process, he said, was in the last stage as memorandum of association of these companies had been finalised and registration was underway. — Staff Reporter