Speakers of a stakeholders’ consultative conference on “setting research agenda for precision agriculture” here at New Syndicate Hall of the UAF urged the government for waiving off the GST and Income tax on all agricultural inputs and agri machinery to enable the farmers, researchers and the sector compete with rest of the world and make the rural development and the economy to grow.

Speakers of a stakeholders’ consultative conference on “setting research agenda for precision agriculture” here at New Syndicate Hall of the UAF urged the government for waiving off the GST and Income tax on all agricultural inputs and agri machinery to enable the farmers, researchers and the sector compete with rest of the world and make the rural development and the economy to grow. The conference was organized by Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies in Food Security/Agriculture funded by USAID that envisaged build the capacity of UAF to find innovative solutions to solve national and global challenges related to food, agriculture and environment through excellence in education, research, outreach and policy support. Opening the debate Dr Bashir Ahmad Director/Chief of Policy said that after two consultative conferences on climate change and fertilizer, the centre is holding 3rd conference to take all stakeholders on board to device a doable pro-farmer policy that could solve the problems of industry. He said, on one hand the Indian government was providing an adequate subsidy to its farmers to keep them globally competitive and on the other hand to ensure the food security in the country. He termed the injudicious use of pesticides and other inputs, was counterproductive, as the experts are advocating a balance use of nutrients to keep the soil productive for a longer time to come. Dr. Allah Bakhsh Dean, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology said that the yield gulf between the progressive and traditional farmer needs to be bridge through enabling the small farmer use latest sowing, irrigation, and harvest technologies. He said precision agriculture is all about to maximize the production by minimizing the losses by making an integration of balance nutrients, water and energy. Dr Jahanzib Cheema Director Water Management Research Centre and chair precision agriculture, said that GIS and remote sensing data was available with various agencies that needs to be shared with the researchers and the same should be disseminated among the farmers, government organs and other stakeholder so make necessary arrangement prior to the extreme climate happenings. He underlined the need of formulating production technologies for various agro-ecological zones to raise the average production of the country. Engineer Javed Iqbal said that in contrast to the Pakistani farmers who have to pay GST and Income on all agricultural inputs, the Indian farmers are getting heavy subsidies on the inputs. Jamal Khan said that technology is available with the experts as like US, we can also produce 45 tomato from a plant. He underpinned the encouraging steps for processing and value added industry of fruits and vegetables to flourish the sector. The conference learnt that all banks are providing a very meager amount of agricultural credit that needs to be doubled at least. The conference urged the centre to persuade the government for announcement of pro-farmers policy and its onward implementation.