Educated people and landless farmers: Punjab plans to lease out 12.5 acres of state land

The Punjab government has planned to lease out state land up to 12.5 acres to suitable educated people, landless farmers and peasants, having up to four acres of land. This scheme would help increase food production and benefit farmers in rural hinterlands, said Punjab Senior Minister Raja Riaz, while talking to newsmen here on Tuesday.
Under the plan, about 60,000 acres of land would be leased out among suitable farmers, he said, adding this scheme also included riverine lands. Raja Riaz said the government had also included farmers in repair and maintenance and of canals.
Besides, the farmers would improve and strengthen the infrastructure of the canals in collaboration with the farmer organisations in canal command areas, he added. He said the government had evolved a plan to attain food autarky by increasing food and vegetable production. This scheme would help increase food production and benefit farmers in rural hinterlands.
The country's economy, to a large extent, was an agrarian economy as agriculture accounted for 21 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), together with agro-based products fetched 80 per cent of the total export earnings. It also accounted for over half of the household consumption. It used nearly half of all inputs and energy consumed as well as one-third of all investments, he added.
Raja Riaz said the province contributed a major share to the agricultural economy, providing about 83 percent of cotton, 80 percent of wheat, 97 percent of fine aromatic rice, 63 percent of sugarcane and 51 percent of maize to the national food production.
Among fruits, mango accounts for 66 percent, citrus more than 95percent, guava 82 percent and dates 34 percent of the total national production of these fruits. The minister said that a sum of rupees three billion was being spent on agri-sector and another Rs 1.21 billion on agri-research during the current fiscal year.