Govt package sought for agriculture's uplift.

LAHORE -- The government has been urged to announce a comprehensive package for the uplift of agriculture, providing decent livelihood to around 65 percent population of the country attached with the sector.

Talking to the media here on Sunday, Pakistan Businesses Forum (PBF) Vice-President Ahmad Jawad said the government was ignoring the agriculture sector for the last three years, despite knowing the fact that in the present scenario it could play an effective role to boost the country's economy.

He said the farming community had been struggling during the Covid-19 pandemic, which damaged the food-supply chain, hitting the fruit and vegetable growers especially hard. While the pandemic posed a unique challenge to the world, the local farmers also had to simultaneously cope with climate change and water scarcity, as the drought-like situation further exposed Pakistan's agricultural fault lines.

Referring to the two-fold increase in the rates of...