ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock Nazar Mohammad Gondal said on Tuesday that fisheries and livestock sectors had great potential for development.

Addressing a high-level meeting held to discuss measures for developing fisheries and livestock sectors, he said the government wanted to provide maximum relief to small and poor farmers.

Sindh Fisheries Minister Zahid Bhurgari attended the meeting. Mr Gondal said he would take up the issue of including fisheries and livestock in the prime minister’s insurance scheme.

He asked the marine fisheries department to provide technical assistance and support to the Sindh government in upgrading fishing boats to meet the standards set by the European Union.

About 50 such boats would be modernised and upgraded by the end of this month.

The minister said 75 per cent of the expenses for upgradation of the boats would be borne by the federal government.

He said he would direct the agencies which gave clearance for fishing in the sea to start one-window operation so that hurdles faced by fishermen in getting clearance could be removed.

The role of the agencies should be to help fishermen and not to creating problems for them, he said.The meeting reviewed the project of upgrading the marine fisheries department’s hatchery in Karachi and making it functional at its maximum capacity.

He said that the fisheries development board would provide Rs14 million for the hatchery.

It was decided that a meeting would be held in Gwadar to settle disputes between the fishermen of Sindh and Balochistan and to boost the fisheries and livestock sectors in the two provinces. The Sindh marine and fisheries minister thanked the federal minister for giving sympathetic consideration to proposals put up by the provincial government.

Mr Gondal also took notice of the shortage and rising prices of urea fertiliser.

He directed the chief secretaries of Punjab and Sindh to check the rising prices and ensure availability of the fertiliser.

The minister emphasised the need for coordination between federal and provincial governments to tackle the issue of shortage and rising prices of fertiliser.

The minister also wrote to the adviser for interior affairs to take measures to curb the smuggling of urea to Afghanistan and Central Asian states so that the Kharif crop would not be affected.