LAHORE: Secretary Agriculture Punjab Ahmad Aziz Tarar has called upon the growers to bring maximum area under wheat cultivation this year besides putting in efforts to achieve an average yield of 45 maunds per acre to meet the domestic needs.
He said this year target of sowing wheat is 16.5 million acres of land in the province and every effort should be made to achieve this by meeting the target in time.
Tarar expressed these views while presiding over a seminar arranged in connection with the ongoing campaign of wheat at Hafizabad district organized in cooperation with Agriculture department and a private fertilizer company.
Secretary Agriculture Punjab said Agriculture department’s field staff is helping and guiding the farmers in every possible way to fulfill this national duty of timely cultivation of wheat so that the food security situation in the country remains satisfactory. Apart from this, selected varieties of wheat are being provided free of cost to the farmers of the flood affected areas while in other areas a subsidy of Rs 1200 have been provided on approved seed varieties. Apart from this, the support price of wheat has been increased up to 3000 rupees per 40 kg before the sowing of wheat so that the cultivation of wheat can be made profitable for the farmers.
Secretary Agriculture Punjab instructed the paddy farmers not to set fire after harvesting and said that in the light of the High Court’s orders, legal action is being taken against those who set fire to paddy residue. In this context, the farmers should mix the paddy residues in the soil as per the instructions of the Agriculture Department which will also increase the fertility of the soil.
On this occasion, Director General Agriculture (Extension) Punjab Dr Muhammad Anjum Ali said that the Agriculture department is engaged in imparting technical guidance to the farmers and the farmers are being given wheat. The series of training programs on modern technology is going on. Mega farmers’ convention/seminars are being organized at the division and district level and the agriculture department is determined to achieve more wheat than the production target this year.
Head R&D Private Fertilizer Company Asif Ali said that with proportionate use of fertilizers the average production of wheat can be increased significantly.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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