This year rice crop has been sown over an area of 4.754 million acres of land in the province and the government has fixed a production target at 3,992 million metric tons. The government is committed to guiding the paddy growers at every stage in order to meet the production target. The agriculture sector tops the priority list of present government and it has taken numerous farmers' friendly steps in its brief period.
Punjab Minister for Agriculture Malik Nauman Ahmad Langrial said this while addressing a 'Khushaal Kissan' seminar arranged by the Pakistan Basmati Heritage Association (PBHA) in collaboration with the Punjab Agriculture Department (PAD) at Gujranwala on Saturday.
The Minister said that Pakistan stands at the fourth place in rice exporting sector and has exported 2.19 million tons of rice during the year 2018-19 fetching precious foreign exchange of US 1.04 billion dollars. He hoped that the export figures would touch US 2 billion dollars during the current year.
He said the provincial government had allocated collectively over Rs 40 billion for the development of agriculture in the budget for current year and taken many steps like increase in the limit of interest free loans, subsidy on seeds and fertilizer, crop insurance scheme and etc to bring down cost of production and push up the profit for well being of the growers.
Convener Pakistan Basmati Heritage Association Shahid Tarar speaking on the occasion said that the objective of the Association is to protect the Basmati variety and strengthen its value chain besides promotion of responsible and balanced use of pesticides and fertilizers.
Rana Nazir Ahmad Khan, Shaheena Riaz Cheema MPA, Naveed Anwar Bhinder Chairman Punjab Agriculture Marketing Regulatory Authority and others also spoke on this occasion. Experts in their addresses throw light on methods of using the latest technology to ensure maximum per acre yield.
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