The minister also announced reduced duty on diesel from 17% to 5% for agriculture sector. Talking to Business Recorder, senior leader of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad Rao Tariq Ashfaq said that as usual the government has ignored 63 percent of Pakistani people in the budget. He said if the government was really giving any importance to the agriculture sector, it would have taken steps to reduce prices of fertilizers, end the role of middleman in agri-marketing and provide significant incentives to the farmers on input costs. He said that at present, farmers are facing serious problems and they are protesting on the roads against their exploitation by middlemen.
Another senior leader of farming community, Mohammad Ibrahim Mughal said that the government should have provided significant subsidies to the farming community on fertilizers, machinery, seeds, pesticides and other agriculture inputs, besides ensuring early handling of different crops from the farms to market. He added that no positive step has been taken to benefit 63 percent population of the country but just a few announcements have been made which are of no use.
At present, different major crops and livestock are facing many diseases and as a result farmers are running from pillar to post to deal with the issues but the government has altogether ignored their problems.
The government should have taken steps to enhance cotton production in the country and make arrangements to lift potato like crops from farms by modernising the markets. He said orange crop is also hit by virus and this year orange exports may witness massive decline, Ibrahim added.
He said that the government must have taken solid steps to promote Halal meat exports which, according to him, have the potential to generate massive foreign exchange for the country. He said that Pakistani livestock sector contributes about 56.3% of the value of agriculture and nearly 11% to the agricultural gross domestic product (AGDP), saying that a number of local industries are totally reliant on livestock and a growth in livestock would result in growth of allied industries.