Agriculture uplift in Punjab : task force presents projects worth Rs 70 billion

The Prime Minister's task force on agriculture has presented specific projects for development of agriculture , water, livestock, fisheries sectors in Punjab at the cost of Rs70 billion to be shared by the federal and provincial governments to ensure food security on short and long term basis.
Punjab Planning & Development Board in collaboration with Federal Ministry for National Food Security & Research jointly organized a conference titled Planning & Design of Prime Minister's 100 Days Agenda on Agriculture Sector at P&D Complex here on Monday.
Finance Minister Punjab Hashim Jawan Bakht, Minister for Agriculture Malik Nauman Ahmad Langriyal, Minister for Live Stock Sardar Hassnain Bahadur Dareshak, Federal Secretary National Food Security & Research Islamabad Dr. Muhammad Hashim Popalzai, Chairman P&D Punjab Habib-ur-Rehman Gilani, Punjab Provincial Secretaries, Director Generals of respective departments and other relevant officials attended the conference.
Opening the forum, Federal Secretary National Food Security & Research Dr. Muhammad Hashim Popalzai briefed that task force on agriculture constituted by the Prime Minister in consultation with all the provinces has identified development sectors along with specific projects and their tentative cost share of respective provinces and federal share as well. According to the distribution of shares of expenditure Punjab government will spend Rs11.387 billion on increase in production of Wheat, Rice & Sugarcane crops while federal government's share would be Rs5,345 billion.
Punjab government will allocate Rs18.5 billion for improvement of water courses and Rs11.56 billion for command area development whereas the federal government would contribute Rs9.74 billion and Rs6.2 billion for development of water sector of Punjab which produces about 76 percent of major agriculture commodities.
On the development of fisheries, Punjab will allocate Rs2.478 billion and the federal government will provide Rs1.361 billion for this sector. For uplift of livestock sector Punjab government will allocate Rs942 million and federal government will provide Rs628 million.
Addressing the conference, Chairman P&D Punjab Habib-ur-Rehman Gilani welcomed the task force and suggested that dedicated allocation for agriculture sector in coming years would be planned and the said allocation would not be disturbed. Punjab Minister Agriculture Malik Nauman Langriyal stressed that while executing the new projects, we should keep in mind the lesson learnt from the on-going projects.