Daily Times

Punjab Caretaker Minister for Agriculture SM Tanveer said on Saturday that unfortunately no long-term policy had been formulated in the past for increasing agriculture production and ensuring value addition through innovation in the sector. He said this while presiding over a meeting, held to finalise the Punjab Agriculture Strategic Plan (2023-33) in the Planning and Development Board here. He said it was necessary to formulate a long-term policy with clear goals to address the challenges of the agricultural sector so that country’s agricultural exports could be increased.

SM Tanveer said that the Punjab government had given all stakeholders an opportunity to share their experience for formulation of a long-term policy, which would be effectively monitored in future. Land Information and Management System Head Major General Shahid Nazir said that the caretaker government was trying to increase agricultural production through modern technology and cultivable land was being digitalised. Steps were being taken to get more per acre production with the help of modern technology.

Punjab Agriculture Secretary Iftikhar Ali Sahoo said that today all stakeholders had gathered under one roof and in the light of the experiences of experts, a 10-year long-term policy recommendations would be formulated to draft a comprehensive agricultural policy that would increase per acre production and agricultural exports. The secretary constituted 12 working groups to finalise the next 10-year agriculture plan. Latter, a draft plan would be submitted to Caretaker Punjab Chief Minister for approval. In the meeting, all stakeholders shared their experiences for the challenges and problems faced by the agriculture sector.