20000209

Soomro calls for

agricultural

marketing system

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Pakistan needs inagrivative measures to set up a marketing system for its agricultural products in order to compete in the region because absence of a marketing system is causing severe suffering to the farmers and losses to the country, Sindh Minister for Agriculture, Iftikhar Soomro said on Monday night.

The Minister, speaking at a reception organised by the Pakistan Agricultural Pesticides Association (PAPA), said lack of agricultural marketing system in the country was the major obstacle in the way of progress in the sector.

"Everybody is suffering because of this, but farmers' suffering is greater because of colossal risk to their labour and income which the middlemen smartly skips away from them," Soomro said.

"We have onion, which is penny cheap now and most of the crop is rotting in storage. But on the other hand, the neighbouring country is enjoying benefits from the crop all over Asia and Middle East because of its mature marketing system," Soomro said.

In response to the speech of PAPA Chairman Asif Mohammad Khan, the minister assured his cooperation in reviewing the Agriculture Pesticides Ordinance 1971.

Khan said the existing agriculture pesticides ordinance, which was made promulgated in 1971, was outdated, had been amended many times and finally had become an extremely harsh law for pesticides companies.

Soomro said he would discuss the matter with the federal government, but asked PAPA to submit suggestions in addition to their comment.

The PAPA is also demanding strict implementation of SRO-160 to improve the overall activity of pesticides companies.

There is a law under which the distributors registration with the provincial government has to follow certain conditions, for example employment of 10 agricultural graduates; adequate storage; proper repacking facilities; safety precautions. "But these have been ignored by certain elements."

The minister assured that his department would do its best to implement the procedures and keep check on the prices.

Regarding the reduction of duty on sprayers, the minister asked for a formal suggestion from the PAPA.

The PAPA chief said that it was universally accepted that correct pesticides application was the most important thing but at the moment the spray machines in the country were below standard specifications with the result that the control of pest was becoming extremely difficult and resurgence of secondary pests was also not uncommon.

"We propose standard sprayers may be allowed to be imported. At the moment, import is not feasible due to a very high duty structure which is about 42-45 percent," Khan said.

He said the PAPA was of the view that the duty must be reduced so the right kind of sprayer should be available for correct use of pesticides, which would definitely increase the productivity.