Bumper crop of wheat is expected this year: Minister  

Minister for National Food Security Tariq Bashir Cheema has said despite the economic restraints and post-flood challenges, we have achieved 91 percent of the wheat-sowing target, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.  

Addressing media in Islamabad on Wednesday, he said wheat sowing had been completed on 21 million acres across the country.  He expressed hope that we will get a bumper crop of wheat this year.

Tariq Bashir Cheema has said that soybeans were not being allowed to be imported while three ships carrying soybean had been detained.

The minister said the government aimed at improving the agriculture sector to bring it at par with international standards.

He said considering the importance of the agriculture sector for the country's economy, we are taking every possible measure to ensure the implementation of the Kisan Package.

He said there was no problem with the provinces regarding agriculture. He said that in order to take loans it was necessary to take the federal government into confidence.

Cheema said that ensuring food security was the top priority of the government. He said that he was going to meet with the farmers’ delegations and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif will also meet the delegations.

He said that tube wells had to be shifted from electricity to solar energy and more than two hundred thousand tube wells were running on electricity in the country while more than 1.2 million tube wells were running on diesel in the country. He said that it had become a dream for the farmer to use fertilizer and the Prime Minister reduced the price of fertilizer by Rs2,500 while the DAP bag was currently available for Rs9,000. 

Cheema further said that for the first-time agriculture sector had also been included in the youth scheme. He said that agricultural loans were increased to Rs1,819 billion by an increase of Rs400 billion.

The Minister said disbursement of loans has also been started for the landless farmers. Five billion rupees will be distributed among the landless farmers.

Tariq Bashir Cheema said State Bank of Pakistan has issued notification for start of other programs under the package including waiver of markup on existing loans in flood affected areas, provision of subsidy for interest free loans in flood affected areas and inclusion of Agriculture in Youth Loan scheme.