Pakistan Economy - News & Updates - Archive

[Neo]

NEW YORK (July 24 2006): Minister for Privatisation Zahid Hamid has said that environment for foreign investment is conducive in Pakistan and invited Pakistanis living in USA to invest in different sectors. Talking to a delegation of prominent Pak-American businessmen here, the minister said a strategy has been evolved to resolve the problems being faced by Pakistanis living in USA regarding investment.

He said he will hold a conference on investment in New York. Zalar Naseem, Malik Sikandar Aziz, Mirza Khawar Beg and others attended the meeting.

He said due to the sagacious and dynamic leadership of President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minster Shaukat Aziz the economy of the country has been stabilised.

The delegation apprised the minister about the investment in power and other sectors. The delegation said that a large number of Pak-Americans are interested to invest in Pakistan if concession was given to them. They said that they are ready to invest ten million dollars to hundred million dollars in Pakistan.

The minister said that the government respects the decision of Supreme Court regarding Pakistan Steel Mills. He said the decision will not cast negative impact on the privatisation process.

 

[Neo]

GUJRANWALA (July 24 2006): Government is doing its best to develop and promote both agricultural and industrial sectors for strengthening national economy and fill up the vast gap between imports and exports and add to foreign exchange reserves of the country.

Federal Minister of State for Law and Justice & Human Rights Shahid Akram Bhinder stated this while addressing at a seminar held on the role of Gujranwala region in building economy here on other day.

The seminar was attended by leading industrialists Sheikh Mohammad Aslam V P FPCCI Mohammad Anwar Aslam, Mirza Imtiaz Ahmad, Qamar Zaman Gill, Muhammad Aslam Khokhar, General Manager State Bank of Pakistan and prominent citizens among others.

The minister maintained that facilities offered by government for promotion of industrial products are conspicuously visible.

He said that districts of Gujranwala, Sialkot and Gujrat form Golden Triangle of economy and the motorway connecting Lahore and Sialkot would benefit the industry in these districts.

The motorway he said shall complete in three years at the cost of 5 billion rupees.

The minister also assured to resolve load shedding issue on permanent basis and said that two power plants were sanctioned for Gujranwala to met deficiency of power supply. These plants shall be installed soon he assured.

He said that emphasis was also being laid on imparting technical training and produce skilled hands.

Food Minister Punjab Muhammad Iqbal told that a lucrative package was given for industrial development of Gujranwala.

 

[Neo]

KASUR (July 24 2006): Punjab Minister for Management and Professional Development Sardar Hassan Akhatr Moakal has said that the government in collaboration with the private sector would provide one million jobs annually in the province.

Talking to Nazims, Naib Nazims and other elected representatives of the area here on Sunday, he said that incentives would be offered to foreign investors so that more industrial units could be set up in the province.

He said that the government would encourage housing, tourism, transport and communication sectors for the development of the province.

The minister said that law and order situation would be improved under " Mahfooz Punjab" programme for creating sense of security among the masses.

The minister said that Punjab government was taking maximum steps for enhancing literacy rate under education reforms programme.

The government has introduced new local government system only to resolve masses' problems at local level, the minister added.

 

[Neo]

RAWALPINDI (July 24 2006): The Parliamentary Secretary for Defence, Major Tanveer Hussain Syed (retd), has said the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) will generate record revenue of Rs 10.2 billion in 2006.

He said the Authority had achieved remarkable progress in terms of revenue generation as its surplus had been raised from Rs 3 million in 2003 to Rs 8.55 million in 2004, Rs 2.4 billion in 2005 and Rs 4.6 billion in 2006.

In a statement here, he said the expenditures of the CAA for the current year were Rs 5.5 billion while its net surplus would be Rs 4.6 billion in the same year which would be a great leap forward in CAA's history.

About the financial health of the CAA, the parliamentary secretary said that earlier its financial condition was hardly satisfactory as was evident from its previous years financial performance. He sated that in 2003, the Authority generated a meagre surplus of Rs 3 million, but its current surplus revenue touched the figure of Rs 4.6 billion.

This significant financial achievement was the outcome of efficient financial management programme introduced by the present leadership of the Authority. Regarding the financial liabilities of the CAA, Tanveer Hussain said it had paid off all its loans (Rs 5.6 billion) and the liabilities were reduced to Rs 3.2 billion only from Rs 10.7 billion in 2003.

He went on to say that Rs 4 billion would be available during budget year 2007 to finance the development plans. He appreciated the excellent performance shown by the CAA and expressed optimism that the Authority would further increase its revenue in 2007.

 

[Neo]

BEIJING (July 24 2006): China will soon hold a feasibility study, exploring ways and means to expand its rail network up to Pakistan's border. A senior official of the Chinese Central government told APP here on Sunday that they were actively considering, strengthening their communication links with Pakistan through rail and road.

"We welcome Pakistan's proposals in this connection, and wish to extend support for optimism use of Gwadar seaport for developing bilateral trade."

The technical and financial matters involved in the construction of the Rail link up to Kashgar and the Sust check post, would be considered at the experts' levels.

The sources hoped that the rail link would open vast opportunities for Pakistan and China to deepen their trade and business interactions both at bilateral and regional levels.

They said, the China's Xinjiang autonomous region would soon undertake necessary spadework, connecting China with Pakistan through the rail.

Xinjiang Region Governor Ismail Tiliwaldi has stated that early this year, during his meeting with a delegation of Pakistan Muslim League, it was decided that his government would soon start necessary work to find out possibilities of operating a rail network between the two brotherly countries through Kashgar.

The two sides agreed that the China's western region has rich potential to emerge as hub of Sino-Pak business activities.

Pakistan and China have already started a regular bus service between Kashgar and Gilgit.

According to experts, the proposals of expanding the China's existing rail network up to Pakistan and Central Asian States are feasible and this gigantic task could be implemented to serve their common interest.

China enjoys rich potential and technical know-how to expand its rail link to the country's mountainous regions. It proved its worth, by connection China's Qinghai province with Tibet last month.

China solved three major difficulties to rewrite the world's history of railway construction. The three difficulties are frozen tundra, high altitude and plateau environmental protection, said Zhu Zhensheng, Vice Director of the Ministry of Railways office in charge of the new line.

About 550 kilometres of the tracks run on frozen earth, the longest in the world's plateau railways, posing great challenges for designing and construction, he said. The oxygen content along the railway is only 50-60 percent of that at sea level as 960 km of tracks are located at more than 4,000 metres above the sea level, Zhu said.

The annual average temperature on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is below zero degree Celsius with the minimum temperature at 45-degree Celsius below zero.

None of the hundreds of thousands of workers died of altitude sickness in the past five years, making a medical miracle, said Professor John West, associated with the School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego.

More than 600 doctors and nurses served for the construction project and there was one clinic every 10 kilometres along the line, making sure that any sick worker could get medical treatment within 30 minutes. However, when the country built a highway between Qinghai Province and Tibet in early 1950s, almost the construction of every one kilometre of the road would claim one death.

The 1,956-kilometre-long Qinghai-Tibet railway is the world's highest and longest plateau railroad and also the first railway connecting the Tibet Autonomous Region with other parts of China.

 

[Neo]

QUETTA (July 24 2006): The government is spending Rs 26980.390 million on 396 road projects across Balochistan in order to provide transportation facilities through improvement of roads for the people who are living in far-flung areas of the province, official sources told APP here on Sunday.

Rs 8505.814 million have already been spent on these projects in the province, the sources said and added that the government is also constructing bridges, widening various roads and improving road networks across the province.

The sources rejected the impression that the government is constructing roads only in particular district and said constructions of roads are in progress not only in Kohlu, but also in Sibi, Bolan, Killa Saifullah, Panjgur, Loralai, Barkhan, Khuzdar, Turbat, Kalat and other districts of the province.

Referring to Dera Bugti, the sources said, work on Lehri-Sangsila Dera Bugti Road is in progress. Rs 79.680 have been allocated for the road and so far Rs 59.400 have been spent. In this regard Rs 10 million has been granted from gas exploration for construction of the road. Completion of the road will facilitate the people of the province to visit direct to Dera Bugti instead of passing through Sindh and Punjab into the district.

The province is witnessing unprecedented progress. Road networks are being laid which would provide great transportation facilities to the people. Completion of the road networks will also promote and enhance trade activities in the province. The improvement of roads will not only reduce distances but also bring the people closer to each other and improve socio-economic conditions, the sources explained. The government is making sincere efforts to complete these projects within the stipulated time.

 

[Neo]

DUBAI (July 24 2006): Costain Oil, Gas and Process (Cogap) has been awarded a contract by Eni Pakistan Limited for the provision of engineering, procurement services and construction management support services for the Khirthar Concession in Sindh.

The work will involve a wide variety of projects and runs for three years.

The initial principal project, valued at over $40 million, will comprise the Badhra Tie-in Project for the Badhra and Bhit field expansion.

This will involve installation of additional capacity at the existing site and will tap into the Badhra reserve via a new 20-km pipeline.

The award follows on from the Front End Engineering Design (Feed) contract for this expansion, which was recently completed by Costain for Eni Pakistan and builds on Cogap's previous work with Eni for the original installation at Bhit of two Nitrogen Rejection Units (NRU's). Those units form part of the existing gas processing trains, which deliver around a third of Karachi's total natural gas demand.

The work will require a multi-disciplined team of engineers and comprise a range of activities, including Feed studies, detailed engineering design, and management services for both new facilities and existing plant upgrades.

Cogap Managing Director Charles Sweeney said: "We are extremely pleased to have been selected by Eni Pakistan for this contract, which will provide us with the longer term opportunity to demonstrate our unique overall skills in the design and delivery of projects for gas production, treatment, processing and compression."

 

[Neo]

LAHORE (July 24 2006): The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) will spend Rs 34.8 billion on the improvement of power transmission system, erection of transmission lines and construction of new grid stations to meet the ever increasing demand for electricity in the country.

Wapda Member (Power) Chaudhry Muhammad Anwar Khalid told APP here on Sunday that the Authority had already spent Rs 14.4 billion on 12 projects designed for augmentation system during the last one and half years across the kV transmission lines of 109-km and 255-km length.

He said seven grid stations of 220 kV each and one grid station of 500 kV capacity were constructed in the country.

He said these projects helped a lot in strengthening the power transmission and distribution system, adding another eight new grid stations of 132 kV capacity each were also added on the system and 27 grid stations were extended with the installation of heavy duty transformer while augmentation work was carried out in another 27 grid stations in different parts of the country.

Khalid said that during the period under review, 132 kV line of 296 length were also erected at a cost of Rs 1 billion, adding that Rs 34.8 billion will be spent on 15 identical projects in the next two years and sites for this purpose had already been identified.

He hoped that with the addition of new grid stations and erection of high voltage transmission line, overall power transmission system of Wapda will further improve.

Referring to a news item regarding the output of Wapda appeared in a section of the press recently, he said Authority's system, the largest in the country is fully capable enough of meeting power demands in future provided all resources were made available timely.

 

[Owais]

Pakistan to send port personnel to US for training KARACHI: Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Khan Ghauri has said that Pakistan’s port and shipping personnel will be sent to United States for extensive training.

Ghauri during his visit to United States met with high level authorities at US ports and discussed matters of mutual interest while exchanging notes on improvement of Port facilities in Pakistan by incorporating latest technologies.

 

[Owais]

BOI confirms acquisition of 1,200 acres for car plant


ISLAMABAD, July 23: The Board of Investment (BOI) on Sunday confirmed that the Punjab government was in the process of acquiring 1200 acres of (agricultural) land in Sheikhupura district for a Mercedes assembly plant.

It, however, said that the land acquisition was in keeping with the requirement of industry and its future expansion, including vehicle testing track, vendor industries, warehouse facilities and a residential colony with ancillary facilities for employees. “There is no intention to establish a racing track, a golf course or a hotel as mentioned in the write-up (Dawn’s Saturday issue),” it said.

The BOI also claimed that the Land Acquisition Act 1894 did not “prohibit acquisition of land for any public purpose or a company” in any locality and that “the affected people would be given fair compensation for any land that may be acquired for the project”.

The BOI had been approached by Dawn for its point of view on the project before the report was published.

The board did not say at that time that a hotel, golf course and racing track were not part of the project. It did not explain on Sunday why BOI Minister Umar Ghumman and the Coastal Limited were quoting different investment figures of $5.85 billion and $1 billion.

The District Officer (Revenue) Sheikhupura in a judgement had cited one of the objections as: “That the area under acquisition was beyond the actual needs of the project in so far as it contains a golf course (57 acres), hotel (50.5 acres), a race track (478 acres and an area of 98.7 acres for future expansion”.

And he wrote in response: “It goes without saying that this leviathan project is being undertaken as a joint venture in collaboration with Mercedes, a foreign company of international fame. Definitely the project will run by and under the supervision of a large number of foreigners, resident and non-resident. The spot is away from the big city rendering it absolutely necessary to cater for the mandatory living requirements in one camp”.

It has not been explained as to why the company itself wants land not more than 600 acres and the BOI puts it at 1,200 acres. The BOI also did not explain why agricultural land was chosen for the industrial unit in a province where tens of thousands of barren or uncultivable land is in abundance.

The report was based on documentary evidence and all parties had been consulted before it was published.

 

[Owais]

Rs 1500 to Rs 4000 excise duty levied on foreign travel tickets KARACHI: Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has levied Rs 15000 excise duty on foreign air travel, replacing previously 15 per cent levied excise duty.

According to statement issued from CBR, the excise duty has been levied on the foreign travel in context of business and economy class tickets.

Rs 25000 excise duty has been levied on each business class ticket for travel to Saarc countries, Africa and Afghanistan, whereas Rs 1500 on each economy class ticket for travel to Europe, Far East, China, America, Canada, Australia and South Africa. Rs 4000 excise duty will be charged on each business class ticket, while Rs 2500 on each economy class ticket to rest of the countries.

However, Pilgrims, ambassadors and airlines personnel as well as passengers traveling to Pakistan from any country will be exempted, according to the CBR statement.

 

[Owais]

KESC to invest Rs 20 billion to curb loadshedding
KARACHI (updated on: July 24, 2006, 20:24 PST): The Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) on Monday announced spending of over Rs 20 billion in this fiscal year for improving its power supply system to overcome load-shedding and unexpected power breakdowns.

This was stated by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) KESC Frank Scherschmidt at a news briefing here in his office.

Principal Officer Public Relation KESC Sultan Hassan was also present.

Scherschmidt said new KESC administration had not enough time after taking charge of the Corporation to improve power supply situation in this summer but assured that citizens of Karachi would not face the same situation during the coming summer.

He informed that a new power generation unit was under construction with a cost of Rs 14 billion, which would generate 500 MW electricity.

"After functioning of this unit, demand and supply situation will improve to a large extent and people would get relief", he added.

To him, from the day one after taking charge of KESC, the new administration was facing sabotage as well as other conspiracies aimed at tarnishing image and performance of the Corporation.

He admitted that KESC customer service centres' performance was poor adding that the KESC was taking steps to computerised all its centres and they would also be linked with each others.

"Currently, we are not satisfied from our staff's performance and trying to improve it", he said.

To a query, he said decision regarding closure of shopping centres and markets was taken by the government but it helped to save 70 to 90 MW electricity and termed it 'useful co-operation' from the government to control the power supply situation in the city.

On the occasion, Sultan Hassan informed that the KESC would introduce computerised meters to control electricity theft, adding that these meters would be replaced after every three year.

He said the KESC had made an emergency plan to cope with any unpleasant situation during rainy season. Besides establishing a central rain emergency centre, the KESC will also depute one engineer in each town who would work with in co-ordination with town administration, he added.

Giving details of current power supply situation, he informed that one hour load shedding was expected to be carried out on rotation basis on Monday evening and night in residential areas including Liaquatabad, Civic Centre, Nazimabad, Valika, Orangi, North Karachi, Federal A and B Area grid stations.

Briefing the power supply situation, he informed that electricity from NKI was still not available due to problem at WAPDA end.

At Bin Qasim, unit No 6 was out of service and was expected to be normalised by Tuesday morning, he added.

He said there was a short fall of around 250 to 300 MW on Monday and load was being shed for one hour in rotation with a repetition of three to four hours in each group.

He informed that Uthal and Bela grids that were affected since yesterday evening had been normalised after rectification of fault by transmission department. He also informed that due to system constraints load was being shed at Mauripur and Elander Road grids.

 

[Owais]

US gives Pakistan over $62 million for education
ISLAMABAD (updated on: July 24, 2006, 21:21 PST): The government on Monday signed a $62.7 million agreement with the United States to improve primary and higher education in Pakistan in 2006.

The total includes $40 million in support for the basic education focusing on school administrator and teacher training, schools improvement through parental and community involvement in school, and school construction in FATA.

Over $22 million is supporting Fulbright Scholarships for post-graduate studies by Pakistani students in the Untied States and need-based scholarships to 11 universities throughout Pakistan.

The bilateral agreement was signed at the Federal Government High Middle School, National Health Colony Chak Shahzad by US Agency for International Development (USAID) Director Jonathan Addleton. Khalid Saeed, Secretary of Economic Affairs Division had previously signed the agreement.

US Ambassador to Pakistan Ryan C. Crocker and Sajid Hasan, Secretary of Education both witnessed the signing.

Ambassador Ryan C Crocker addressing on occasion said: "The high level of support the American people provide for USAID's Education programme shows our commitment to quality education for all Pakistanis and our hopes for a bright future. In education lies opportunity and we are helping Pakistanis create and seize opportunities".

"The main goal of our education assistance is to make education an issue of personal commitment among all Pakistanis. We aim to involve parents and communities in the quality of their children's education and we aim to make classrooms active places where teachers and students are closely engaged with one another" he added.

The dignitaries visited the multipurpose resource center at the Girls School which was built in a partnership between the USAID-sponsored Education Sector Reform Assistance (ESRA) program and the parents and teachers at schools.

The resource center which houses materials and computers with educational software, is the result of one of the 5000 School Improvement Grants distributed under the ESRA program.

Rebuilding and equipping schools and providing teacher training will also be key components of USAID's $200 million reconstruction program in the earthquake-hit areas over the next four years.

The US, through USAID is providing more than $1.5 billion in development assistance to Pakistan over the next five years to improve education, health, governance and economic growth

 

[Neo]

AT the peril of earning the ire of Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar, it has to be said that in essence the trade policy 2006-07 looks more like the old wine in a new bottle.

It is difficult to dig out something different in the current policy from the earlier policies. The thrust remains the same: Promotion of exports through diversification of product base and markets.

It would have looked more credible to put the bar a little higher than the conservative targets of $18.6 billion of exports, $28 billion imports and $9.4 billion trade deficit.

Are these targets understated to glorify the government’s performance when the actual realization of both import and exports surpass targets in the election year?

The trade policy could be construed to reflect government’s resolve not to succumb to the pressure of powerful lobbies for unconditional support in the form of subsidies and blanket exemptions. That aside, the unjustifiable high bound rates have not been revised in the policy reflecting the old mindset in the ministry of commerce that does not hold on its priority list the importance of fetching a respectable place for Pakistan on international trade indexes.

As for the trade with our neighbours, seemingly the current political developments weighed in favour of anti-India lobby within the establishment. That section managed to put measures aimed at establishing closer trade ties with India on the back burner.

It was interesting to watch the commerce minister speak. He opted for a more direct and a professional approach in the policy. In contrast to the verbose politically charged budget speech that was made by the minister of state for finance Omer Ayub Khan, the trade policy speech, mercifully, spared listeners of rhetoric’s. It dealt directly with issues related to trade and commerce.

In his trade policy pronouncements, the commerce minister even hinted at weaknesses in the government efforts to deal with hitches in the way of rapid industrialization.

”We are facing a shortage of exportable surpluses and this is proving to be a major obstacle in an effort to rapidly increase our exports”, Humayun Akhtar remarked. At another place in the speech he said, “...the ministry of commerce by itself cannot ensure export growth or contain trade deficit within certain limits. This is because the ministry functions within the overall economic environment of the country and its performance is therefore constrained by the impact other economic policies of the government have, on trade. Here I am referring to monetary and exchange rate policies and of course other policies affecting our GDP growth rate”.

The significant patches of the policy included announcement that numbers of trade in services will be disaggregated to plan more rigorously for promotion of trade in this sector. The minister also informed that a decision had been taken to integrate figures of defence and services sector in the overall trade data collected and processed by the Federal Bureau of Statistics. Up until now, trade figures pertain to merchandise exports and imports.

An expert on trade diplomacy who has also served the government termed the trade policy as ‘comprehensive”. “The fact that the government is looking towards value-addition and exports diversification is commendable”, he said and explained that several initiatives of clean cotton, horticulture development, domestic commerce, fashion design, skill development, long-term financing, were all in the right direction.

But an economist of some repute was not impressed by the policy at all and termed most targets unrealistic. He went as far as to call it all as “window dressing”. His argument was that ahead of announcing such super-sounding plans as dazzle city and carpet city the commerce minister should have explained how much has actually been achieved on the earlier announced projects of textile city and one village one product schemes”.

“It all depends on the commitment and willingness of the government to actually implement what it projects”, he commented.

A senior economist felt that the government’s declared import, export and trade deficit targets had been pitched a little bit too wayward. “I fail to understand how will the government contain the import bill at $28 billion when both demand and prices are moving in the same direction and that is towards north?”

On the issue of subsidy and concessions, some businessmen with interests in textile were not happy as the textile package announced a few days before the trade policy was not up to their expectations. The private sector demanded a support of Rs50 billion that they felt was necessary for the sector to cope with the pressures of globalization. Some textile trade bodies started a public campaign through advertisements in local media to pursue their case for more subsidies.

“It is not fair to blame government for our failings. It gave support for a very long time. Now it is about time that the private sector gears itself up to meet business related challenges on its own”, Chaudhry Mohammad Saeed, President the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry said from Muzaffarabad over telephone commenting on response of the corporate Pakistan to the trade policy.

“Some of our colleagues are not ready to grow. They are stuck in ‘exemption era’. They have not done benchmarking. They have not channelised R&D subsidy in a prudent fashion. They have not gone for branding of their products. This has led to falling unit prices, which is very unfortunate. For reversal of the trend, they need to put their own act together instead of again leaning on the government”, he commented.

The head of country’s premier trade body thought the trade policy direction to be satisfactory with emphasis on logistic improvements for facilitation and improving the competitiveness. Chaudhry Saeed, however, felt the government needs to do more to simplify procedures to create atmosphere of trust and transparency in the country.

Shabbir Dhanji, President Indo-Pakistan business forum expressed disappointment as he was expecting some concrete measures aimed at enhancing level of trade with India. In the trade policy speech the Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar did refer to South Asia Free Trade Agreement (Safta) when he was listing trade diplomacy initiatives of the government.

“We were expecting inclusion of more items on the positive list if nothing else but unfortunately India did not get even a mention in the entire policy speech”, he complained. “If we improve trade relations it would not be a favour to the Indians; it would be the most logical move for the benefit of both nations”.

Dhanji with interest in auto sector saw scope for both Pakistan and India in establishing closer trade relations. He said and many other businessmen concurred with his view that political bickering had held back the two nations for too long. “We must keep walking”, he added.

 

[Neo]

THE degradation of natural resources which pollutes the environment is a big threat to biodiversity.

Natural resources have been damaged mainly because of the failure to adopt sustainable change, misuse of chemical and pesticides, resource degradation, ignored biodiversity, neglect of human resource management and development.

The research on sustainable agriculture development and technology transformation was not encouraged nor efforts were ever made to save the indigenous knowledge for securing biodiversity. However, lately a team of dedicated workers have carried out a research on the “economics of ecological agriculture’ to tackle the problem.

The basic objective of this research was to find out ways for optimising land ,animal and plant output for preserving natural resources and energy flows and to enhance the biodiversity, with the help of farmers.

This research was conducted in the four ecological regions of the province, i.e. Upper Sindh, Lower Sindh, Central Sindh and the desert areas to compare the economics of ecological agriculture as against the existing practices and for which a continuous interaction between farmers and officials was maintained and certain crops were selected to achieve the desired results.

The study showed that farmers use ‘farm yard manure’(FYM) as fertilizer for increasing soil fertility and prepare pesticides from plants such as ‘neem’, ‘tobacco’ and ‘tooh’ which are easily available in these areas. Such a practice on the part of farmers proves useful in maintaining the ecological plot, whereas the chemically treated plot are managed with the chemicals.

According to these findings, the average crop (rice/cotton)yield of ecological plot is 18.5 maunds (one maund is equal to 40 kg) while the yield of chemically treated plot is 24.5 munds, which is obviously quite high.

Similarly, the average input cost of ecological plot is Rs7490 while the average input cost of chemical plot is Rs14935. The average output of ecological plot is Rs18793 while the average output of chemical plot is Rs21945.

This very clearly indicates that the practices of ecological agriculture are economically more beneficial compared to the existing practices as the average net profit of ecological plot is Rs8303 and the average net profit of chemical plot Rs7020.

The ultimate result of all this is that the farmers recognize the importance of ecological agriculture which is not only economically viable but highly supportive for enhancing biodiversity.

Moreover, ecological agriculture is safer for farmers compared to chemicals which leave their toxic impacts and also pollute the environment. In short, farmers and officials have recognized the importance of ecological agriculture and now, there seems to be a dire need to plan strategies for the promotion of ecological agriculture at a micro level in order to reduce farmers’ poverty with sustainable development of agriculture.

See in my eyes you dwell, be aware It may hit you”

Now it is our ethical and moral responsibility to adopt such practices which have symbiosis relationship and less expensive, to achieve these objectives we must take initiatives for the promotion of ecological agriculture at micro level to reduce the poverty of farming community and mobilize them for understanding & compilation order to optimize Land: animal: Plant interaction for energy flow to enhance bio-diversity. These objectives can be achieved through the formation of farmers’ groups, farmers’ clubs and farmer’s schools to facilitate them for wide adoptability of ecological agriculture.