FM Qureshi launches Khushhal Pakistan app for farmers

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mehmood Qureshi launched a new agriculture application “Khushhal Pakistan” to provide timely information to farmers.

Speaking at a ceremony here, he said economic and social progress could be made by focusing on the agriculture sector.

“For this purpose, a long time back, we laid the foundation of the farmers’ association.” Its aim was to bring innovations to increase the production of agriculture, he added.

Qureshi said, “We have fertile land and we have to utilise new ways to increase production of crops.”

He said, “Most of our population is directly or indirectly related to agriculture and the challenge is to make an indebted country like Pakistan prosperous and bring it out of the bondage of the International Monetary Fund.”

The minister said he was using the word bondage to clarify that when a loan was taken from someone, he would give it under strict conditions.

He said Pakistan had the potential to fulfill its economic needs by using its water resources in a better way which was possible with the use of technology.

He said there were challenges in the agriculture sector, adding firstly a large section of society was living below the poverty line.

Provision of jobs was the second challenge while the third challenge was food security and all these challenges could be overcome by making the farmer prosperous.

The capabilities of the public sector departments had decreased while the private sector was moving ahead, adding partnership of public and private sectors was needed to make progress.

He said an ordinary farmer wanted to build his home, educate his children and get medical treatment without selling his animals and this would be possible only by increasing farm production.

He said mobile phones were used by everyone and it should be determined how to use this facility for increasing productivity.

Today’s farmer lacked information and if he would have timely information about weather, he could save his seeds, he noted.

He said the farmer needed information about crop diseases and crop medicine so that he could take preventive measures.

Qureshi said the farmer was complaining that he was not getting the right price for his crop while urban residents were complaining about rising prices and this showed that profits were made by middlemen and hoarders.

With the use of digital technology, farmers could get timely information, assuring his support in increasing digital literacy.