FAISALABAD City News

Call to address water sacristy issue

Researchers ask govt to revise agri policy

From Our Correspondent

FAISALABAD: Agriculture experts and farmers have called for addressing the issues of water scarcity, deteriorating ground water quality and decreasing groundwater level in the agriculture policy.

They were addressing at a farmers consultative meeting on the Punjab agricultural policy arranged by the US Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security, Outreach Chair, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, at the farm of Sarwat Malik on Saturday. Chairing the session, UAF Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that per capita water availability in the country had decreased to 1,000 cubic meter, which was putting us in the red zone in per water availability index. He said that 1.2 million tube-wells were operating in the country, deteriorating the quality of ground water. Every year, two to three foot underground water was going down, he feared. He said that we were not rationally pumping out ground water. He called for construction of dams in order to face the challenges as we were sending a lot of water back to the seas. He said that the modern irrigation like drip and sprinkle would help address the issue. He said that Faisalabad was presenting a situation like Thal 150 years ago. He said that then British government had come up with a viable canal system that gave life to this barren land. He also suggested that barren land in Balochistan could be converted into a fertile land by addressing the issue of water. He lamented that rice was highly water intensive crop. We were exporting rice of Rs 2 billion at the cost of water costing Rs 10 billion. He demanded a shift in policy to put a focus on water efficient crops. He maintained that subsidy was a hurdle to create an atmosphere of competitiveness. He said that subsidized sector could not be profitable. He added that vibrant market and value addition mechanism in agriculture sector was need of the hour. It was the weakest area in our country, he told. He said that the Punjab government was making all-out efforts to address the problems of farming community. The meeting was a part of the efforts in order to get suggestion from the farmers for redesigning the agricultural policy. He said that subsidy in the agriculture sector was a hurdle to create the atmosphere of competitiveness in the agricultural sector. He suggested phasing out the subsidy that would ultimately create an environment of competitiveness and result in growth in production. Progressive farmer Khalid Malik said that there were only two dams in Pakistan and we had not added any big dams for the last 40 years. He said that India had set up more than 150 dams and blocking our water. He said that the Indus Water Treaty needed to be revised. Citrus Association vice-president Ibad Khan called for developing the certified seed. He said that the cost of the production was increasing, narrowing down the income of the farmers. He said that mechanism about proper profit of the farming community must be devised to address the problems of the farming community. Progressive farmer Faisal Shah said that there was a need to develop a system of modern trends to increase the per acre production that would rise the income of farming community. He said that we did not need subsidy we need modern system to increase the productivity. He said that it was a matter of concern that despite being the surplus in all major crops, the county was standing 108th in global hunger report index. Progressive farmer Fareed Noon said that high efficient system and big dams were imperative to address the issue. He also called for drip and sprinkle irrigation. Dr Afzal Rizvi said that there was a need to analyse the domestic agri production and import relation. He said that increase in production was adding the woes of the farmers. He said that we had to give rights to the rural population in the education, health and electricity. Dr Noshaba said that post harvest was causing the loss worth billions of rupees. We had to promote the packing in fruits and vegetables also, she added. Hamid Mali called for developing the ground water recharge policy. He lamented that we were dumping 35MAF every year to the sea. He said that for the last 40 years, we had failed to make big dams. Mian Shaukat said that we had to make the rational use of water and we were exploiting our resources from our own hands. He stressed upon the need of a good agriculture policy keeping in view the present and future challenges.