ISLAMABAD, July 19: The National Assembly standing committee on agriculture here on Wednesday expressed concerns over the inability of the federal food ministry to exercise quality control on pesticides.
The committee in its meeting, with MNA Makhdum Syed Ahmed Alam Anwar in the chair, rejected the excuses of the officials of the ministry regarding hurdles in controlling quality of pesticides, which was not only putting extra financial burden on farmers but was also resulting in damaging land productivity and crops production.
It also asked Minfal to reduce pesticide testing fee to Rs500 from the existing Rs5,000.
The meeting was informed that local and multinational companies were fleecing domestic farmers by supplying low quality pesticides. Some of the pesticides already banned in other countries due to their harmful effects on soil could still be found in the Pakistani markets, where the farmers were still in complete dark about the repercussions of such pesticides.
Some members of the committee told Minfal that farmers in Sindh and Punjab were not getting the government announced minimum price of Rs415 per 40 kg for their wheat.
"It is pathetic that you people announce the minimum price (for agricultural produces) but have no system in place to ensure that farmers do get those prices. The orders are issued from Islamabad with no consultations and collaboration with the provinces to implement them later," a member observed while replying to the remarks of the secretary Minfal, Ismael Qureshi, insiders said.
The committee asked Minfal to come up with a plan to ensure that farmers from all parts of the country received the minimum procurement prices set by government in future.
The standing committee also asked Minfal to set in place an effective mechanism for procurement of pulses at the government announced minimum prices.
It was informed that the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet had already approved intervention prices for pulses for the 2006-07 crop.
It also asked the environment ministry to provide a roadmap and implementation timeframe for control of water pollution from industrial and municipal waste. Water pollution was badly damaging agricultural land in the vicinities of the country’s major cities, the meeting was informed.
The meeting, however, expressed its satisfaction over the export of kinno and the development of seedless kinno by scientists of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). It also appreciated the scientists of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PAEC) for controlling fruit fly through biological control measures under its integrated pest management (IPM) programme.