HYDERABAD, Sept 8: Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock Sikandar Hayat Bosan said on Saturday that despite an allocation of Rs16 billion funds, under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), for agriculture, the sector had still very wide room for improvement.

Mr Bosan called bringing about improvements in the country’s agriculture policy with an aim to make the sector profit-earning. He was presiding over an inaugural session of two-day national conference on agriculture at the Sindhi Language Authority, organised by the Federation of Chambers of Agriculture Pakistan (FCAP).

He urged the growers to take interest in the crops that were competitive. He was not averse to cultivation of sugarcane but given the cost of producing sugar, it could not be imported unless government announced subsidy whereas other crops had the lowest production cost, he suggested.

He said that if there was huge production of sugarcane then farmers would not get maximum price and claimed that cultivation of sugarcane this year was 13 per cent while expected production was 11 per cent comparatively. “I always stand for benefiting all the stakeholders,” he remarked.

Mr Bosan spoke about yield gap and said that there was increase in the production of wheat as it shot up to 27 maund this year from last year’s average 25 maund per acre yield whereas progressive farmers were having around 50-55 maund per acre.

He said that the government intended to offer as much subsidy on DAP as possible but for sudden rise in its prices in international market. It was still available at Rs1,400 per bag otherwise its actual cost stood at Rs1,900.

“Right now the DAP is available in international market at $525 per ton against last year’s $250 thus difference is for everyone to see,” he observed. He said that the country produced 85 per cent of nitrogen fertiliser and imported 15 per cent with an allocation of Rs6 billion while 15 billion were spent on DAP’s import, making the overall subsidy Rs21 billion.

He advised growers not to be complacent about their production and continue efforts to produce more. They should not be afraid of WTO regime because they were already cultivating without subsidies, he said.

He informed the audience that new technology was not introduced in tractors because it would increase their cost, which would subsequently lead to complaints about high cost.