The cost of agriculture production has been reduced by 5-10 percent due to various incentive packages introduced by the government.
“If these measures continue next year, the agricultural products including wheat, rice, sugar and others would be able to compete in international markets,” Chief Economist in the Agriculture Policy Institute (API), Sohail Muhammad Khan said.
Talking to APP on Thursday, he said that decreasing the production cost of local Agri products would help to create a reasonable space and capture the international markets by competing in these products.
He said the government was taking appropriate measures to further bring down the cost of agriculture production in order to compete in international markets and enhance the exports.
He said that government has announced kissan package, subsidy on fertilisers, installation of solar tube wells, as well as a reduction in electric tariff for farmers to the improve the agricultural sector in the country.
Besides, he said the government had also abolished sales tax on pesticides, adding that subsidy in fertilisers had received a positive response from the growers and fertiliser intake had witnessed a significant increase during the season.
Increasing intake of fertilisers would bring about a positive impact on overall agriculture production and reduce the negative effects by increasing the per acre crop productivity, he remarked.
Sohail Khan said that despite a long dry spell in the country, wheat output would not be affected to the great extent as rain-fed areas only contribute 10 percent to the total output.
On the other hand, he said targeted wheat sowing in irrigated areas was achieved as compared to last year and if the temperature remains normal during the month of March then a healthy production of wheat was expected.
