Govt to focuse on Balochistan development, says Bosan

Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research, Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan has said the government to focus for the Balochistan development and farming community on priority basis.

Balochistan development is important for Pakistan and Scientists would be recommended for abroad training that perform better for development of agriculture sector in Balochistan Province,he said on the occasion of 3rd Batch of Skill Development of the Farmers and Scientist from Balochistan at National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) Islamabad.

He said the trained farmers transfer their knowledge and skill to other farmers of their areas and trained manpow- er is the key role for the development of agriculture,said in statement issued by PARC here on Sunday. Addressing on the occasion,Federal Minister assured the farmers that the government would not allow any import of fruits and vegetables from neighboring countries as long as local commodities are available in the market.

"As long as your fruits and vegetables are available in the market, we will not allow import from our neighboring countries, he assured the farmers. He said that interest of farmers was our priority.

Bosan said the Iran apple was not now being imported through Balochistan, rather it come through Turkhum border. Highlighting the importance of water availability the Minister said that development of water reservoirs and dams in Balochistan was need of the hour,however added, that after 18th amendment in the constitution, the resources have been transferred to provinces so they need to take measures to share resources with federal to build such facilities. The Minister said that federal govt would definitely assist in building of dams, however, it is responsibility of provinces to take measures in this direction. He said that the provinces had now adequate funds to build such

facilities. He said that the budget of his ministry has been reduced from Rs.32 billion to Rs.1 billion after 18th amendment. The Minister said that measures would be initiated to install solar tubewells in the provinces under Prime Minister's scheme to facilitate the farmers to overcome water problem to enhance production of agriculture. Sikandar Bosan said there is need of awareness of farmers about the

positive and negative impact of solar tubewells for availability of the water because unnecessary and over use of water resources cause water problem in some regions. He said under PM scheme, Govt would provide interest free loans to farmers for installation of solar tubewell for seven years for availability of water for agriculture use. The Minister, while emphasizing the need for providing training to farmers said that the government aims to train as many as 1,000 Balochistan small farmers through the on-going programme initiated by NARC. He said that further 1000 farmers would be provided training through the same progamme in the next phase.