LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif saluted the province’s farmers on World Food Day on Friday and promised 10 more agriculture malls, as Lahore households weigh the day’s message against the price of the flour, naan and roti on their tables.
“The farmers of Punjab are rendering invaluable services to meet the food needs of the entire nation,” she said, urging people not to forget growers who work through harsh weather. Climate change and unprecedented environmental shifts were threatening food supplies, she said, and agriculture had to embrace innovation and mechanisation to keep up.
The message tracks this year’s global theme, “Innovate Today. Nourish Tomorrow.”, chosen by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, which calls for combining new solutions with traditional knowledge so that everyone has enough safe, nutritious food.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif struck a similar note, naming climate change, water scarcity, falling soil fertility and rising production costs as the main threats. He pointed to a new National Agricultural and Food Security Council that will coordinate seeds, mechanisation, irrigation and digital systems, and called for cheaper credit for small farmers and better storage to cut post-harvest losses.
Punjab’s own tools are the Kisan Card, which gives farmers interest-free loans for inputs, and the Green Tractor Scheme. By July, the province had issued about 900,000 Kisan Cards, disbursed Rs360 billion in loans and delivered 24,000 subsidised tractors, officials said. The chief minister said farmers at the Model Agri-Mall get inputs, advice and machinery rental under one roof.
The 10 additional malls were first announced in June, for districts including Faisalabad, Jhang, Okara and Rahim Yar Khan, adding to those in Multan, Bahawalpur, Sahiwal and Sargodha. Friday’s message did not say when they would open.
In Lahore, food security is measured at the tandoor. A 10kg bag of flour milled from government wheat sells at the fixed price of Rs1,100, while a naan costs about Rs30 and a roti Rs20. Flour from open-market wheat climbed to around Rs137 a kilogram in August, and rising diesel and transport costs have fed through to food prices in city markets.
The national picture remains stark. About 40 per cent of Pakistani children under five are stunted, and 7.5 million people face crisis-level food insecurity or worse in the areas assessed by the UN-backed IPC analysis, with Balochistan and Sindh worst affected.
Farmers, too, want more than tributes. Some farmers’ groups protested against the provincial government in August, and Pakistan is importing a million tonnes of wheat this year after last year’s floods damaged crops. With wheat sowing under way, the support price and fertiliser costs will matter more to them than any message.
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