LAHORE: President Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shehbaz Sharif has asked the government to immediately focus on protecting the rights and interest of small farmers ahead of wheat harvesting season in the wake of COVID-19 threat.
He urged the government to announce an agriculture policy which shall include recommendations with regard to wheat harvest, the supply of wheat from farm to market and government’s wheat support price to help the farmers in the coming days of the wheat harvesting season. He has also directed his party to work on these recommendations.
“In the agricultural policy, the government must protect the interests of small farmers while taking into account the measures to save the people from coronavirus,” Shehbaz told a meeting on Tuesday.
“The PML-N has prepared its recommendations in consultation with medical experts, economists, businessmen and traders,” Shehbaz said, adding the party was holding consultations with party leaders, agriculturists and farming community to prepare recommendations for government to implement its policy in the best interest of farmers and country’s economy.
Shehbaz said that his party had always given top priority to agriculture and farmers’ community. During PML-N’s tenure, Shehbaz said the government, under the leadership of the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, announced the historic Kissan Package, whereby the government provided electricity at low tariff, fertilizers at half prices and concession on diesel-run tube-wells.
During PMLn’s tenure farmers in Punjab were provided interest-free loans to small landholders, which helped double the production of crops in the province.
“The government not just made it easier for farmers to obtain loans but also waived the fee charges on the acquisition of these loans, which boosted the agricultural economy in the province,” he added.
