Glimpse Of Steps Taken To Strengthen Agriculture Sector

Uplift of agriculture and farmers is among the top priorities of the Punjab government and in this regard it has started various initiatives

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 08th Jan, 2018 ) :Uplift of agriculture and farmers is among the top priorities of the Punjab government and in this regard it has started various initiatives.

Punjab agriculture department Extension Adaptive and Research Director General Muhammad Zafar Yab Haider said this while talking to APP on Monday. He said that government was fully aware of the fact that the sector could be strengthened with the implementation of modern techonolgies.

Numerous steps have been taken by the government during last year to benefit farmers in real sense. Like it has allowed the use of drone technology in agriculture sector to enhance productivity of different crops.

Unmanned Air vehicle (UAV) drone is a small unmanned aircraft and this technology could be used for applications of pesticides on crops, monitoring of weeds, pests, and nutritional deficiencies, geographical survey of crops, area and water resources besides research and development, the DG added.

He said that the Punjab government had started projects worth Rs 2.25 billion to promote modern system of irrigation and technology suitable for country's weather conditions. The ongoing projects include drip/sprinkle irrigation system, for which the government is providing 60 per cent subsidy, installation of tunnel on which 50 per cent subsidy was being provided, while 80 per cent subsidy was being given for running drip irrigation system on solar system.

From the fiscal year 2016-17 till now, drip irrigation system had been installed on more than 11,000 acres of land, tunnel farming on more than 350 acres of land, while on an area of more than 1,500 acres, drip/ sprinkle irrigation system with solar system had been installed, he added.

"Punjab govt is also providing 60 per cent subsidy on installation of drip irrigation system and in this regard Agriculture department (Water Management Wing) has been given a target of shifting 20,000 acres of land to drip irrigation system (DIS)", he added.

He said that the use of DIS was of high importance for uneven, pothohari and desert lands and it would help to save water, labour, fertilizers and time up to 50 per cent.

He further said that agriculture department also started a project for the development of new cotton varieties to boost the yield of the commodity.

New varieties would be resistant against different types of cotton worms, cotton leaf curl virus, different weeds and climate change. The project cost about Rs 363.000 million titled "Commissioned Research for Development of Cotton Seed".

In current financial year of (2017-18) Rs 100 million would be spent on this project. District Faisalabad, Multan, Vihari, Sahiwal, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan will benefit from this project.

Punjab Agriculture department project to set up (Khajoor) Date valley in South Punjab has been started and this initiative will help the country to export dates. DG said in Pakistan the annual date production had crossed the amount of 550,000 tonnes, which he added helps to get 300 million Dollars of forex annually.

More than 600,000 free olive plants were distributed in two years to growers of the olive valley. He said Punjab government was working on project to save foreign exchange by promoting the cultivation of oil producing commodities.

Pakistan spends Rs 270 billion on the import of edible oil every year and keeping in view these facts it was vital to enhance the cultivation of oil producing commodities, he added. For the first time in the history of the country, a scheme has been introduced under which a subsidy was being provided to farmers on the cultivation of canola.

Farmers should seek the maximum benefit from the subsidy, which was Rs 5,000 on per acre of land, he added. Similarly, registered farmers could seek benefit from the subsidy on cultivation of Sunflower which is Rs 5,000 per acre of land.

As many as 45 farms of agriculture department would be upgraded in Punjab to obtain maximum benefit these farms by the end of June 2018. The objective behind it was to make barren land cultivable as this effort would help in boosting yield of various agricultural commodities in the country.

He said government was making sincere efforts to facilitate farmers and trying its best to strengthen all areas of agriculture sector.