Farmers facing plethora of issues in country, says Asad Qaiser

ISLAMABAD: Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser on Wednesday said farmers in the country were facing countless challenges, ARY News reported.

Chairing the meeting of Special Committee on Agricultural Products at the Parliament House, Asad Qaiser asked the provinces to work for providing relief to farmers for their loss of crops because of rains.

He said a mechanism should be made for resolution of losses of farmers.

The speaker NA said exploration of markets for agriculture should be included in the government’s targets.

The secretary ministry of food protection said fewer funds were spent on agriculture. He said Pakistan would import four billion dollars annually on agricultural produce.

On March 31, Senate Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions had recommended to waive off the agricultural loans to provide relief to small farmers of the erstwhile FATA.

The Senate standing committee had said this in its meeting under the Chairmanship of Senator Hidayatullah here at the Parliament House.

Senators Hilal-ur-Rehman, Sajjad Hussain Turi, Shamim Afridi, Najma Hameed, Secretary SAFRON, Member IR Policy Wing, CEO TESCO, officials from the State Bank of Pakistan and relevant ministries and others were also present on this occasion.

Regarding agricultural loans to small farmers from the tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the committee was told that the total amount of outstanding loans given to people from the erstwhile FATA between 2009 and 2012 was 471 million, out of which only 30 million was agricultural loans.