May 05, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 28, 1429

LAHORE, May 4: As the Kharif sowing has just taken off, farmers in Punjab have come forward with “new and achievable crop targets”.

At a meeting on Sunday, the AgriForum Pakistan said the country should not aim less than 15 million bales of cotton, six million ton rice and should cut area of sugarcane to half by doubling the per-acre yield.

“The targets are achievable provided the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and the provincial agriculture department officials leave their offices and work shoulder to shoulder with the farmers,” said Ibrahim Mughal, chairman of the forum. “Work with the farmers and for the farmers,” was what he emphasised.

He said the most crucial factor in achieving these figures would be the price of fertiliser, especially that of DAP. Its price had tripled in the last one year, spelling disaster for the agriculture sector, he said, demanding that the government should bring its rate down to Rs1,000 a bag.

Similarly, the price of urea also should be brought down to Rs450 a bag from Rs625 and of SOP to Rs1,000 a bag against Rs2,200. The price of fertiliser could make or mar the sector, therefore, it should figure high on the government’s priority, he said.

Rana Majid Zafar, another member of the forum, said loadshedding was hitting hard the sector, especially due to rocketing diesel prices and increasing dependence on tubewells. The power managers must ensure that tubewells remained operational even at the cost of air-conditioners in the urban areas. “More than 12-hour loadshedding in rural areas is making it impossible for farmers to pump out water for Kharif crops.

“There is a staggering 77 per cent water shortage in the cotton belt which can be disastrous if the farmers fail to supplement water to their crops because of loadshedding.”

Another official, Bilal Israel, urged the government to take care of the seed sector to achieve results. “The poor farmers are being looted in the name of BT cotton or other fake seeds. And the official machinery is totally helpless to check the mafia. The rice seed being used by the farmers is almost 12 years old, susceptible to every kind of disease and has also lost it vitality. Such a situation would not help the country achieve the crop targets.

“The government now has agriculture set up right down to the union council level, which must be activated for betterment of the sector and the nation,” he advised.

Weedicide is another very weak sector which must be taken care of for achieving Kharif targets, according to Waqas Ilyas. Currently, only 10 per cent farmers used weedicides and it must be taken up to 50 per cent to save the farming sector from trouble.

The government officials must make it to the fields if they wanted to achieve these targets which, otherwise, would remain a dream for everyone, he insisted.