Middlemen Role To Be Abolished To Boost Profitability Of Farmers: National Assembly Body Told

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Planning and Development was told on Tuesday that the government was planning to abolish the role of middlemen in transactions of agriculture produce to ensure maximum profitability for the original farmers

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Apr, 2019 ) :The National Assembly Standing Committee on Planning and Development was told on Tuesday that the government was planning to abolish the role of middlemen in transactions of agriculture produce to ensure maximum profitability for the original farmers.

Briefing the committee about government's targets in agriculture sector during next five eyras, Secretary Planning Zafar Hassan said due to role of middle men and "mandis" specially in rural areas, the farmers do not get their due price of their produce due to which they get discouraged and produce less crops.

He said the government was fully focused on the development of agriculture sector as per vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan and during next budget it would allocate around Rs 12-13 billion under Federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2019-20 against only Rs 1-2 billion in previous years.

The meeting of the committee was presided over by MNA Junaid Akbar here.

Member Agricultural, Dr Muhammad Azim informed that before the year 2000, the country's agriculture growth rate was above 4%, however after that, the growth rate declined sharply to below 2% and the trend is still intact.

He said the main reason behind fall of agriculture growth rate was the decrease in profitability of the farmers.

He pointed out that in the 12th five year's plan, the government has targeted average growth rate for the sector of 3.3% by taking various progressive measures including reforms in irrigation, and establishing plants to add value to the raw agriculture products.

Zafar Hassan said under the direction of the PM, the agriculture sector is included in the priority list of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

He said Pakistan would get benefit from the Chinese expertise in agriculture sector under CPEC.

He informed that China would provide $1 billion to Pakistan under its social programme of CPEC during next three days and the money would mainly spent on the development of agriculture sector of the country.

He said under the project China would also help Pakistan in establishing plants for the manufacturing of small agriculture machinery such as tractors besides establishing processing plants for value addition of dates in Sindh and Balochistan provinces.

Meanwhile Director CPEC at Planning ministry Hassan Daud Butt briefed the committee on the execution of CPEC projects in Pakistan.

He said so far projects worth $29 billion had already been completed under the project while the remaining projer worth $20 are under implementation stage.