PM Shehbaz Calls for Higher Farm Productivity, Agricultural Export Growth

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for stronger coordination between the federal and provincial governments to raise per-acre agricultural productivity, modernise farming, develop livestock and increase agricultural exports.

 

Chairing a high-level meeting on agriculture and exports, the prime minister stressed that the sector remains critical to Pakistan’s economic growth and stability. He directed authorities to expand access to international markets, identify new export destinations and promote greater value addition in agricultural products.

 

Pakistan’s agricultural exports reached $5.18 billion in the last fiscal year, with rice, fisheries, halal meat, potatoes, sesame, tobacco, mangoes and maize among the major export products.

 

The prime minister also directed Pakistan’s commercial officers abroad to actively promote agricultural exports and ordered an awareness campaign to encourage farmers to use a mobile application for crop monitoring.

 

The meeting proposed developing agricultural value chains to increase export potential, with China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Gulf countries identified as key markets.

 

The government also plans to launch a Digital Farmers’ Diary-Agri Stack to digitise farmers’ information, land records and soil and water testing data nationwide. A Pakistan Good Agriculture Practices (Pak-GAP) framework was also proposed to encourage more productive and efficient farming practices.

 

The government further plans to improve access to agricultural financing for exporters. The prime minister said modern technology, value addition, better financing and stronger coordination would be essential to making Pakistan’s agriculture sector more productive and competitive globally.