Boosting food production
Photo: Munir uz Zaman / driknews
We welcome as well as thank our army chief for the advice that all arable lands, not under cultivation, be brought under the plough immediately to boost our food production. He also voiced his deep concern that there was no alternative for us, other than increasing our food production and becoming self-reliant. We have to produce our own foods and stop relying on import. Once we achieve this, I strongly feel that the value of our currency will go up. I suppose mostly the khas lands belonging to the government are outside cultivation. We must ensure that every inch of land becomes productive. At Schiphol Airport, diary farms are there and one can see cows grazing on the green fields within the airport area. It is sad that our decision makers have been neglecting the agriculture sector as well as the farmers. The politicians were sleeping on it. The government has to give top priority to the sector and make all out efforts for boosting food production. The farmers must not be exploited by the middlemen and corrupt government and non government officials and agencies. It is the job of the government to protect them and ensure just treatment. They are the backbone of the nation. They are the ones feeding us. But before anything else, we need to protect our farmlands. There should be no further requisition and acquisition of farmlands. Farmlands must not be utilised for any other purpose like transferring the soil for earth filling to develop the cities. We no longer see those vast tracts of farmlands in the rural areas and day by day the farmlands are shrinking. The mighty rivers devour our lands every year. We could do nothing to protect the lands. We have to take care of our coming generations and must act in that direction. The government should enact laws like in many other countries. Our politicians in the past remained busy otherwise and had no time to ponder about the plight of the common people. We hope this time around they have learnt their lessons…
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments