RAWALPINDI: Commissioner Aamir Khattak on Monday directed the Agriculture Department to take farmers on board before launching any government package. This will produce effective results to the measures taken by the government.

He also directed to increase the number of field assistants and ensure that they registered small farmers in their areas through geo-tagging.

He expressed these views while addressing a meeting of the Divisional Agriculture Advisory Committee and Task Force here. Director Agriculture Shahid Bukhari and other concerned officers attended the meeting in person whereas the deputy commissioners of Attock, Jhelum and Chakwal participated through video link.

The commissioner said he would check soil and water test reports during his visits.

“The reports should have detailed notes from field assistants based on which the farmers would be guided as to which crop would be most profitable on their land and what kind of agrochemicals they would need and in what quantity,” he said.

On the complaint about black marketing of seeds from Attock district, he directed the deputy commissioner to take immediate action against the responsible.

He also directed the deputy commissioner Chakwal that since time for groundnut cultivation was near he should call farmers and middlemen to fix the price so that no one can exploit the farmers.

The commissioner said that the purpose of the government’s subsidy was to provide relief to the common man and this was possible only if commodities were available to farmers in the required quantity and at the fixed prices, which was the responsibility of the agriculture department.

He added that the most important thing was coordination with farmers.

He directed that providing all possible support and guidance to farmers should be the first priority so that they can get full advantage of Punjab Chief Minister’s Rs64 billion Kisan Package.

He said farmers whose crops were not being sold should be assisted by the agriculture department officers by developing linkages with the market.

Director Agriculture Shahid Bukhari gave a briefing on the agricultural profile of the Rawalpindi division and said more and more farmers were being registered to benefit from the Kisan package.

He said under the package, apart from other agricultural benefits, about 512 tractors will be given to farmers in Rawalpindi division.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2024