Pakistan: Government urged to resolve rice growers' problems

Agri Forum Pakistan has urged the government to take timely steps to remove farmers' rice growers' problems so that it could become profitable for them. In a statement issued here on Monday, Chairman Agri Forum Pakistan Muhammad Ibrahim Mughal claimed that rice would be cultivated on 6.4 million acres of land this year out of which 4.3 million acres would be in Punjab.

He said that the production target had been fixed at 5.7 million tonnes out of which 3.3 million tonnes would be produced in Punjab. However he feared that shortage of phosphoric fertilisers, non-availability of appropriate seed, high prices of diesel, shortage of water and load shedding might affect the efforts to achieve this target. He urged the government to take steps to save the growers of this important crop from difficulties and hardships.