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Agriculture

Wheat Shortage in Pakistan Raises Concerns over Food Security

March 19(Agencies) Though the government currently facing toughtime in its deal with IMF, yet it has consumed $876 million on import of2.2 million metric tonnes wheat during the first 8 months of the current financial year. This amount was spent with an aim to deal the local demand because low domestic wheat production in the country. The data available to this organization, compiled by the government department, revealed that the USD starving country has spent 876 million on import of 2,202,972 metric tones wheat from different countries. The idea was avoid shortage of local wheat production in the country. Pakistan had produced 27 million tons wheat last season which was almost 8 percent above than outgoing year. However, this b...

March 20, 2023 at 9:23 am | Economic Affairs

New Fertilizer Policy to Meet Up Demand with Minimum Price is Underway

February 10,2022:Islamabad(Press Release) Federal Minister for Industries and Production Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar presided the high-level meeting on new Fertiliser Policy today. The meeting was attended by Minister for Energy Mr. Hammad Azhar and Minister for Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam. The senior officials of these Ministers were also present.The meeting deliberated on framework of Fertiliser Policy in detail. It was briefed that upcoming policy would be structured on three broad areas ie demand, supply and pricing of soil nutrients. It was discussed that the issue of rationalization of gas sale agreements and supply-chain maintenance through local production or imports in conjunction with demand projections would be addre...

February 10, 2022 at 3:01 pm | Economic Affairs

NA Committee Ask for Action Against Tobacco Companies, Ignoring Purchasing Quota!

November 23,2021Islamabad(Press Release)The National Assembly Special Committee on the Agricultural Products recommended that the Minimum Indicative Price of Tobacco should be fixed at Rs. 260/kg. The Committee instructed the Pakistan Tobacco Board to ensure that no stock of tobacco is left unsold with the farmers and urgent steps should be taken to ensure that the cigarette manufacturers purchase 1.4 million kg surplus tobacco as per assigned quota under the PTB Marketing Rules. Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser presided the meeting attended by Syed Fakhar Imam, Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research, Shahram Khan Taraki, Minister for Education, KP and members of the Special Committee on Agricultural Products.The mem...

November 23, 2021 at 7:47 pm | Economic Affairs

Food Insecurity Conundrum

By Ambassador Naghmana Hashmi In this age of technology and space exploration when some nations are spending billions and reaching for the moon, the Mars and the vast unknown beyond in search of habitable places for the mankind, millions of the humans are dying of food shortage on the planet earth. The UN aggregates that approximately one billion people do not get enough to eat on a regular basis. The 16.6% of the world’s population is undernourished. Almost 1 in 10 people in the world falls ill as a result of eating contaminated food and 500,000 die every year. Approximately 70 percent of the global food supply is produced by small farmers, herders and fishermen, yet they are the most vulnerable to food insecurity. Poverty and ...

October 17, 2021 at 11:13 pm | Economic Affairs

Indian farmers step up protests as eight killed in clashes

NEW DELHI, Oct. 4 — Farmers in India vowed to intensify their months-long protest against laws aimed at liberalising agriculture as tension flared a day after eight people were killed in clashes between growers and ruling party supporters.Four of the eight were killed when a car linked to a senior ruling party official crashed into protesters in Uttar Pradesh state, protest leaders said.Police said they were investigating the crash and had registered a case against 13 people including a son of a minister of state in the interior ministry, Ajay Kumar Mishra.An alliance of protest groups called in a petition to President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday for a court-supervised investigation of the violence."We'll intensify our agitation in Uttar P...

October 4, 2021 at 5:03 pm | Economic Affairs

NA Panel to Overhaul Tobacco Regulatory and Taxation Regime

Islamabad, the September 21st, 2021: +Press Release) The Speaker National Assembly Mr. Asad Qaiser underlined the need for strengthening tobacco regulatory and taxation regime to ensure decent profitability for the farmers as well as progressive increase in government’s revenue from tobacco industry. He stated that information asymmetries, regulatory capture and inefficient taxation regime has stoked fears about collapse of tobacco market for the poor farmers, exorbitant profits for tobacco industry without commensurate increase in government’s revenue from cigarettes industry, and rampant tobacco consumption in Pakistan. It was also outlined that upward revision of taxes levied on cigarettes was the only route to discourage smoking an...

September 21, 2021 at 11:10 pm | Economic Affairs

Govt’s export deal to revive sinking rice sector

Patron Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders Shahid Rasheed Butt on Sunday lauded the government for 4-year rice export deal with Indonesia which will bailout the troubled sector and stabilise prices at home. He demanded more long and short term agreements with other countries to boost the rice sector which is facing problems since some tears. Shahid Rasheed Butt said that export of rice to Indonesia will boost overall exports to 4.6 million tonnes which will be a record for which credit goes to the government. Pakistan’s export forecast has recently been raised by 0.1m tonnes in the wake of a deal with Indonesia. He said that reasons behind crisis in rice sector include high production cost, too much focus of exporters on profit...

February 8, 2016 at 11:57 am | News Desk

Weaknesses in agriculture structure a threat to GDP

President Society Watch Khalid Mehmood on Saturday said weaknesses in the structure of agriculture is keeping this sector fragile which is a threat to GDP growth rate. Masses continue to pay extra for food in the name of national interest which has not improved lives of the farmers but that of rural elite, he said. In a statement issued here today, he said that masses are forced to buy wheat at 40 percent inflated price as compare to rates in the international market while they pay 20 percent extra for rice and 30 percent additional money while buying milk. Khalid Mehmood said that despite getting heavy price the agriculture sector is in doldrums due to distortions which must be tacked to streamline things. He said that prices...

February 6, 2016 at 2:40 pm | News Desk

Khairpur’s golden harvest and the women behind it

Although date palm is a developing industry in Pakistan, the country is already one of the largest producers of this fruit crop in the world. And in the business of producing dates, the city of Khairpur holds a very significant place. Khairpur’s village economy is based on date palm processing and export; this is a source of employment not only for the villagers in Khairpur but also residents of nearby cities, who migrate to the district to work during the crop harvest season. Most of the workers are men, though, with only a small number of women seen working in farms, and that too, the more aged ones. As in other parts of Pakistan, young women’s economic independence in this region is also subject to patriarchal authority; th...

July 2, 2015 at 10:56 am | News Desk

Banks achieve 88pc agri credit target

KARACHI: Agriculture credit disbursement by banks increased by 31.40 per cent to Rs439.8 billion during the first 11 months (July-May) of the outgoing fiscal year as compared to Rs334.7bn in the same period last year. The banks so far achieved 88 per cent of their combined target of Rs500bn set for 2014-15, said the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday. The outstanding portfolio of agriculture loans also surged by 15.52pc (Rs43bn) to Rs320.1bn from Rs277.1bn in the same period last year. The SBP said that the performance of five major banks as a group remained satisfactory, as they disbursed Rs229.3bn (90.8pc) of their annual target and two specialised banks (ZTBL and PPCBL) disbursed Rs86.8bn (85.4pc) of their combined target of Rs101...

June 23, 2015 at 2:37 pm | News Desk

Landless farmers stunned

Sindh government has badly failed to distribute promised 144,561 acres of land among poor, causing unrest among expected beneficiaries and civil society organizations. According to the Landless Hari Program 2008, Sindh government had to distribute 200,000 acres of land among poor farmers, particularly women peasants, but it distributed only 55,439 acres out of promised 200,000 acres. Therefore, it is the right time for Sindh government to start 3rd phase of the Landless Hari Program and distribute remaining 144,561 acres of land among women of the freed bonded laborers, who are primarily agriculture workers and can contribute to Sindh’s agriculture growth. This initiative will secure the livelihood of these marginalized people and hel...

August 12, 2014 at 2:25 am | News Desk