LAHORE: The seventh Dawn Food and Agricultural Expo attracted a large number of people on its second and concluding day at the Expo Centre here on Friday.

More than 44 local and international companies set up their stalls at the two-day exhibition which was visited by farmers, students of agriculture institutes, academia, professionals and others associated with livestock, agriculture and food sectors.

The exhibitors displayed their latest products and technologies such as agriculture and livestock implements, cattle feed, seeds and fertilisers, while banks and insurance companies had also set up stalls to inform visitors about how they could apply and take advantage of agriculture loans and insurance schemes.

Aziz Ahmad from Vehari said he had come here to see new technologies for sowing and harvesting of wheat and paddy crops, which he would grow on his farm. He further said living at a far-off place in the province he could only dream of seeing these machines.

Iqbal, a dairy farmer from Okara, was interested in getting information about maize silage and its advantages over traditional animal feed. He said the exhibition provided him a chance to find out about new and better animal care techniques and milking machines.

“We’ve received serious business customers and are expecting our technology to grow in Pakistan,” said a representative of Cattlekit, a Turkish company.

The exhibition also provided a platform to discuss issues related to agriculture, livestock and food sectors. ‘Farmers’ Perspective on Current Farming Sector Scenario’ and ‘CPEC: Impact on Agriculture’ were themes of dialogue on the second day.

Talking about the farmers’ perspective, Pakistan Kissan Ittehad President Khalid Mahmood Khokhar called for reducing the cost of production of farm produce and providing local growers a level-playing field and facilities and subsidies equal to being provided to their counterparts in China and India so that they could compete with them in the international market.

To set things right, he demanded support price mechanism for all major crops claiming that in India growers of 27 crops were protected through the support price mechanism against just one (wheat) in Pakistan.

Khokhar also called for latest research in developing new seeds, pesticides, farm techniques and machinery. He also criticised the government for what he called framing poor policies. He demanded professionals and not bureaucrats be appointed as the agriculture secretary. He also demanded imposition of agriculture emergency and taking immediate steps for saving the sector from disaster.

Progressive farmers Rabia Sultan and Babar Sardar also highlighted the problems being faced by the sector. Ms Sultan said problems of farmers stood outstanding for decades though many committees had submitted their reports and recommendations to the authorities concerned. She said the government should do something for at least reducing the cost of production of farm produce.

Mr Sardar was hopeful that with proper technology and hard work the farming scenario could be changed as he believed local farmers and lands had the potential; what they lacked was education, training and resources to overcome the issues.

In the session on CPEC’s impact on agriculture, former water management director general Chaudhry Ashraf said the country could compete with Chinese farm products only if it managed to enhance its per acre yield. He stressed introducing high value, high tech and high productivity concepts in agriculture practices here.

Rana Mahmood Akhtar of the agriculture department said they were focusing on high-value farming by initiating contests among fruits and vegetables growers besides offering cash subsidy to those who adopted edible oil crops instead of traditional wheat, sugarcane and rice crops.

He referred to high-tech centres the government was setting up for renting out on easy terms latest farm machinery to interested growers and research being conducted to develop new and better seeds of various crops.

Osman Khan from the Lahore University of Management Sciences called for carefully seeing feasibility of transfer of technology from China and negotiating better with Chinese on high tariff being imposed on exports from Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2018