Punjab Cooperative Secretary Babar Hayat Tarrar on Wednesday said that initiatives were being taken to strengthen cooperatives system in order to address the problems of farming community and increase per-acre production that will result in poverty alleviation. He was talking to University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan at a meeting at syndicate room. Center for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security Chief of Party Prof Dr Bashir Ahmad and other notables were also present on the occasion

Punjab Cooperative Secretary Babar Hayat Tarrar on Wednesday said that initiatives were being taken to strengthen cooperatives system in order to address the problems of farming community and increase per-acre production that will result in poverty alleviation. He was talking to University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan at a meeting at syndicate room. Center for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security Chief of Party Prof Dr Bashir Ahmad and other notables were also present on the occasion Babar Hayat showed his concern that that farmers are facing many problems due to weakened marketing and value addition system in the country. He said that the government would open up cooperative markets to enable the farmers to sell their produce directly to the consumers. He said that under the new cooperatives model, farmers were being provided with loan products of fertilizer, inputs, machinery, seed etc. He said that government was injecting the 500 million rupees in the farmers’ milk cooperatives that will be stretched to across the province in the coming year. He said cooperative banks in Punjab were given new life by the government as the cooperative banks were facing the serious crisis. He said that the University of Agriculture Faisalabad will provide the capacity building trainings to the Cooperative training College. He said that the cooperative movement flourished in Pakistan in 1950s and 1960s when small farmers were hit by the isolation of migration from India and paucity of resources. He said that the provincial government had planned to establish ginning factories; kinnow processing plant, rice husk plant, and other. UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that UAF researchers would provide advisory policy research papers on supply chain of milk to the government. He said that cooperative farming system is the best answer to small uneconomic holdings and will change the pattern of agriculture and will convert it in the profitable business. He said that small farmers were unable to get the benefit of modern machinery, inputs and other tools due to financial constraints. He said that the setting up of cooperative farming will pave the way of the agriculture development. Dr Bashir Ahmad said the Center for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security is working in five dimensions including efficient governance and leadership, curricular reforms, high quality applied and policy research, internationally competitive multidisciplinary graduate training and the technical sustainability.