The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) will brief President General Pervez Musharraf on Friday on three mega projects. Sources in Minfal told Business Recorder on Wednesday that the Ministry would also brief the President on the pace of ongoing projects.
The three mega projects, which were not approved by Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec), have been incorporated in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2006-07 costing Rs 25.8 billion.
The projects include special programme for food security and productivity enhancement of small farmers (Rs 7.821 billion); water conservation and productivity enhancement through high efficiency irrigation system (Rs 15 billion); and national programme for control and prevention of Avian Influenza (Rs 10 billion) and improvement of agriculture livestock marketing system (Rs 2 billion).
The Crop Maximisation Project (CMP) would cover 13,000 villages by 2015. Initial phase would encompass 1000 villages to reduce over 50 percent yield gap between progressive growers and small farmers, and it would also lead to higher production levels in the sector.
Water conservation and productivity enhancement project would benefit the horticulture sector, as it needs more water to increase productivity. Of the total financing of the project, the provinces would bear 20 percent of the total cost of the project while the federal government will bear 60 percent of the total cost and the remaining 20 percent will be contributed by the beneficiaries (farmers).
Drip and sprinkler irrigation systems would result in approximately 40-50 percent water saving, 30-100 percent agricultural productivity increases, 25-40 percent saving in fertilisers and 40-45 percent increase in cropping intensity.
Rs 3 billion would be spent on two projects for betterment of livestock sector. First is a national program for control and prevention of Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) while the second is for improving agriculture livestock marketing system.