President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President All Karachi Industrial Alliance (AKIA), Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister, Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday said largest employment sector of agriculture is nose-diving due to the apathy of policymakers.

The collapse of critical crops, negative growth in the agricultural sector and exploitation of farmers has stoked rural poverty, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that the government should immediately interfere in this important sector with an aim to revive it.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that Pakistan was once considered an agricultural country but the policy shifted towards industrialization which damaged the agricultural sector badly while the goals of industrialisation left much to be desired.

The former minister noted that there are many factors contributing to the fall of this sector including the negative role of landed nobility having large holdings.

Reforms in this sector remain limited to announcements while it has been left at the mercy of exploiters like the loan sharks, middlemen, sub-standard seeds and fake pesticides.

The government should fix the price of important crops or reduce the cost of inputs as developed countries provide subsidies worth billions of dollars to their agriculture sector while the poor countries are forced by the lenders to withdraw their support to this sector which is against the national interests, he said.