Plant breeders’ rights bill to be tabled in Senate soon: minister

MULTAN, Nov 14 (APP): Federal Minister for Food Security and Research Haji Sikandar Hayat Bosan has said that plant breeders’ rights bill will be tabled in Senate for approval during the next session of the upper house of the parliament.
Addressing a “Consultative session for formulation of agriculture policy” at CCRI here on Monday, the minister said that the bill had been approved from the standing committee of National Assembly and it would be tabled in Senate soon.
He said that the bill was introduced in the House in year 2005, but it remained pending for years. He said that the bill would bring about a revolution in the local agriculture sector and it would also attract foreign investment and technology transfer in seed production sector of the country. He said that hundreds of the companies were ready to invest in this sector after approval of the bill.
Bosan said that the government had waived GST on pesticides
for the last two years and ensured availability of fertilisers on subsidized rates to facilitate farmers. He said that different non-functional fertiliser factories had been made functional by the government to increase production according to need.
The minister said that 21 per cent decrease in cotton sowing had been observed in Punjab this year as compare to the previous year while production has been increased. He said that billions of funds has been approved in the budget for agriculture sector.
To a question about role of middle man, Bosan said that government’s involvement in procurement was fruitful for farmers otherwise middle man always cheat them. He said that price of wheat was highest in Pakistan as compare to the world due to high cost of production. He said that there should be more markets in the country in order to facilitate farmers for sale of their crops.
He said that there were 97.5 per cent small farmers in the country having five to seven acres of land and two per cent of 25 of 30 acres of land. He said that special focus should also be given on livestock sector besides agriculture as the both sectors were connected with each other.
On this occasion, VC Agriculture University Faisalabad Dr Iqrar Ahmed Khan, DG Food Security Zahoor Malik, MNA Abdul Ghaffar Dogar, MPAs Shahzad Maqbool Bhutta, Muhammad Ali Khokhar, Sultana Shaheen, VC Nawaz Sharif Agriculture University Dr Asif Ali and other officials concerned were also present.