LAHORE, April 10: The new pesticide policy would be announced next week and wheat would not be imported for consumption, Federal Food Minister Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind said on Saturday.

He told newsmen after the concluding session of the Pakistan Poultry Congress here that the government wanted to end pesticide adulteration.

Under the new policy, incentives would be given to encourage domestic production of pesticides so that the country would not have to face the crisis similar to the one experienced last year on account of dependence on imports.

He said that wheat import was not required because the country required 20 million tons and the crop estimates were over 20m tons. Some imports might, however, be required for building reserves because there was no carryover from the last year.

Mr Rind said that wheat requirements were increasing by 290,000 tons annually on acount of an average 300,000 increase in population every year. Population increase would have to be controlled to avoid wheat imports.

Answering a question, the minister said the Australian wheat was returned because it was not according to the standards and was unfit for consumption.

About the Kalabagh Dam, Mr Rind said that the construction of new water reservoirs was necessary for meeting the irrigation requirements.

The government was fully aware of the need of water conservation and had decided to brickline 82,000 water courses in the country during the next four years.

There would be four per cent saving in water as a result of bricklining of the water courses which would be equal to water storage in the Kalabagah dam.

Earlier, the minister said at the concluding session of the congress that he would convene the federal poultry board meeting shortly to discuss measures for providing relief to the industry.

Mr Rind said that he would recommend reduction in power tariff for the poultry farms and the taxes being paid by the industry to the finance ministry.

He said that a multi-million-dollar plan for protecting the poultry industry from the crisis similar to the one caused by the bird flu scare was being launched with the assistance of the Chinese government and the European Union.

The government wanted to revive the poultry industry and facilitate export of its products. The industry had suffered losses of billions of rupees because of false bird flue scare created by the media.

PPA chairman Yousaf Ehsan Khokhar said that the meeting of the recently constituted Federal Poultry Board should be convened immediately to discuss the crisis prevailing in the industry and find ways and means for resolving it.

He said that poultry farms were paying higher power tariff as compared to industry which required to be reduced. Similarly, the duty on import of medicines used in poultry feeds was higher than the pharmaceutical raw materials.

He said that small poultry farmers had been ruined during the recent crisis. They should be given interest-free loans for starting their business again.

PPA's Punjab chapter president Abdul Basit said that the industry had suffered Rs30 billion loss because of the false bird flue scare. He urged the government to revive the poultry industry because it helped control the meat and fish prices. Mutton and fish prices had shot up because the people gave up chicken consumption because of bird flu scare.