Multan: Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam has revealed that the government is planning to announce a relief package worth PKR 50 billion in a bid to offer subsidies to farmers on various agricultural inputs, according to news sources.
The minister said in a press briefing that the government is making ‘all-out efforts’ to facilitate the farmers and the agricultural community. He said that through provincial governments, the farmers will be granted subsidy on fertilisers, pesticides and other such farming inputs. Imam acceded that the country was facing the locust attack challenge and that efforts were underway to counteract it. He said that this particular species of locusts can travel up to 170 kilometres a day and entered Pakistan in March 2019 — after 27 years.
Furthermore, Imam also said that countermeasures against the attack are ongoing under the National Action Plan. Farmers whose crops are adversely affected by the locusts will be monetarily compensated by the government, he said and added that five planes will be purchased by the Department of Plant Protection (DPP) to spray various areas with pesticides.
Moreover, the minister also remarked that during the prevailing global COVID-19 pandemic crises, even the industrial-based economies are realising the importance of agriculture.
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