LAHORE, March 27: The Punjab government is formulating a comprehensive strategy to train farmers in marketing to ensure good returns of their produce.

Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi said here on Monday while presiding over a meeting of the Punjab Agri-marketing Company at his secretariat. He said that effective measures were being taken for investment in agri-marketing, storage facilities and export of agri-produce. A cold storage of international standard is being set up at the Lahore Airport, he said.

He said that permission to private sector to set up markets for agricultural commodities had resulted in a healthy competition and non-productive expenditure of market committees had been reduced. He said that a new information system had been devised for farmers to keep them abreast with the latest market situation. New export processing zones are being established under the new system for increasing exports, he said.

The chief minister said that the role of banks was also being redefined for provision of resources for agri-marketing and the Bank of Punjab was extending all-out services for the purpose. He said PAMCO, which is an autonomous institution, was helping to promote investment in agriculture sector. The agri-sector is fast growing due to provision of better facilities to farmers for storage and transportation, he said.