ISLAMABAD, Aug 22: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz has directed the officials of the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP) to look into problems of the farmers in Balochistan and provide them necessary relief to reinvigorate agriculture and orchards in the province.

“President Pervez Musharraf attaches lot of importance to Balochistan,” he stated this in a meeting with Jalil Khan Dotani, Finance Minister of Balochistan, here on Thursday.

According to an official announcement, Jalil Khan was leading a delegation of prominent agriculturists of Balochistan to apprise the finance minister of the problems being faced by them due to drought.

The federal government, Mr Shaukat said, realising the poverty and backwardness in Balochistan, had initiated number of mega projects such as Gwadar Deep Sea Water Port (costing Rs14.9 billion), Mekran Coastal Road (Rs15 billion), Greater Quetta Water Supply (Rs6.1 billion) Mirani Dam (Rs5.9 billion) and Kutchi Kanal (Rs18 billion). The government has also reactivated Saindak Copper Mine Project with the Chinese assistance.

Highlighting the importance of agriculture sector in Pakistan, the finance minister said that agriculture was presently contributing 25 per cent to the GDP, employing 44 per cent of the workforce and sharing 60-65 per cent of export earnings. About 68 per cent of the country’s rural population is directly or indirectly dependent upon agriculture.

Consequently, agriculture in Pakistan will continue to play a key role to lower poverty. For these reasons, the government, he said, had taken a number of measures especially in Balochistan to mitigate the impact of drought and to boost the agriculture sector.