ISLAMABAD  -  Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said that amounts under the Ramazan relief package were being transferred to the beneficiaries through a highly convenient and transparent digital wallet system and this model should be adopted for other government’s run schemes.

The prime minister chaired a review meeting on his Ramazan Relief Package 2025. During the meeting, he said the Ramazan package had been introduced across Pakistan, including Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir without any discrimination and lauded the efforts of the State Bank of Pakistan, NADRA, and tech institutions in ensuring transparency in the package.

The meeting was attended by Minister for National Food Security Rana Tanveer Hussain, Minister for Eco-nomic Affairs Ahad Khan Cheema, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, Minister for IT and Telecom Shaza Fatima, Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervaiz Malik, Special Assistant to the Prime Minis-ter Haroon Akhtar, Chairman NADRA, Chairman PTA, relevant government officials, and representatives of private companies related with the Ramadan Relief Package, PM Office Media Wing said in a press re-lease.

The prime minister also directed a third-party audit of the Ramazan relief package and asked that the awareness campaign ran by telecom companies and banks regarding the Package should be made more effective and a comprehensive report be prepared in this regard.

During the meeting, a briefing was given on the progress of the Ramazan Relief Package 2025. So far, 63% beneficiaries had received the relief payment while complete documentary records were available about the distribution of all amounts.

The meeting was apprised that a total of 2,224 employees had been deployed for the Ramazan Relief Package. More than 1.5 million beneficiaries were contacted via telephone calls.

Also, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Monday stressed that federal and provincial governments should work together to provide inputs to farmers at reasonable rates to strengthen agriculture.

He was speaking at the inauguration of Seed Potato Production and Aeroponics Complex established with the assistance of South Korea for indigenising seed potato production using advanced technology.

He said timely availability of good quality seed, fertilizers and medicines will bring revolution in the field of agriculture, resulting in increased exports. He thanked Korea for helping Pakistan in setting up the complex for production of potato seed.

Korea had a strong economy and Pakistan wanted cooperation with it in different sectors, he remarked.

The prime minister said our farmer was hard working and capable and worked in all kinds of weather and with the use of modern seed the production of potato will increase.

“Our farmer needed best seeds, fertilizers and genuine medicines,” he added.

He emphasized that agriculture graduates should be provided suitable environment so that they could con-tribute in the development of agriculture sector.

The prime minister said the Minister for Food Security and his team should focus on the progress of agricul-ture sector.

About 65 percent of our population in rural areas was associated with agriculture, he noted.

“We have to increase the share of agriculture in the country’s economy.  We have to enhance share of pro-duction of cotton, sugarcane and other crops,” he added.

Prime Minister Shehbaz said, “If we make progress with dedication we will be ahead of other countries in the agriculture sector.  We are sending 1000 agriculture graduates to China for training.”

He urged the minister for food security to focus on the local manufacturing of agriculture machinery includ-ing combined harvester.

The prime minister appreciated researchers and scientists of National Agriculture Research Center for their dedication and hard work to promote agriculture.

Due to efforts of these researchers, agriculture of the country will make progress, he said adding efforts should be intensified for the promotion of small and medium enterprises in the rural areas.

“We have to take steps for storage and transportation of vegetables and fruits,” he continued.

The prime minister said farmers should focus on value addition by making use of fruits and vegetables in abundant supply.

He said Pakistan was wasting precious foreign exchange reserves on import of $ 4.5 billion of palm oil and there was a need to reverse the trend by increasing local production.

Pakistan’s livestock sector also had immense potential, he said adding, “We need to put our act together to take part in the progress of the country. We have to work hard to change our agriculture sector.”

The complex at the National Agricultural Research Center Islamabad is a flagship partnership between the Korea Partnership for Innovation of Agriculture (KOPIA) and Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) for certified seed potato production by applying advanced aeroponics technology.

The initiative would significantly improve the quality and availability of seed potato in Pakistan. It also aims to reduce the cost of potato production while improving yields by ensuring the availability of quality seed potatoes at affordable prices.

The partnership between KOPIA and PARC seeks to transform seed potato production in Pakistan by im-proving efficiency, minimising post-harvest losses and introducing on-farm processing, enhancing human capital and generating substantial employment opportunities.

According to PARC Chairman Dr Ghulam Mohammad Ali, traditional potato cultivation yields only five tu-bers per plant whereas aeroponic systems can produce between 50 and 60 tubers per plant. These cutting-edge technologies will not only help meet the local consumption of seed potato but will also curtail heavy important bill, he said.

Despite cultivating potatoes on approximately 850,000 acres, Pakistan remains heavily reliant on the impor-tation of 6,000 to 12,000 tonnes of seed potatoes annually due to the compromised quality of locally pro-duced seeds. This dependency places a financial strain on the country as farmers struggle to afford high-quality imported seeds, resulting in suboptimal yields.

The objective is to supply 160,000 tonnes of certified seed potatoes annually, starting in the fifth year of the production cycle. The project’s infrastructure includes the construction of four aeroponic greenhouses and 35 screen-houses as well as the establishment of a cold storage facility and a 100KW solar power system, all provided by KOPIA to meet the target production goals.

The prime minister also inaugurated the National Institute for Genomics and Advanced Biotechnology (NI-GAB) at NARC. It is an exclusive national institute dedicated to undertake agricultural research in all the three domains of life - plants, animals and microbes. It is a complex of biotechnology with 28 state-of-the-art labs each designated for a specified area along with glasshouses and containment facilities. Through traditional genetic engineering, NIGAB has developed GMOs of wheat, groundnut, potato and tomato against diseases, drought and salinity which await approval from the regulatory body for commercial utilisa-tion at the farm level.