The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) has demanded Rs 1.8 billion to start the Crop Maximisation-II project meant to provide loans to the small farmers, sources told Business Recorder here on Thursday. According to the sources, the government has provided Rs 470 million while the project requires the total funds of Rs 2.3 billion.
The project was started in July and till now we have trained 2,500 village organisations and 2,500 farmers. Our training aims at providing technical training of fish, dairy and honey bee farming and the training to grow the off-season vegetables, sources disclosed.
The provincial programme directors have been appointed. "We have to establish six provincial monitoring units in Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, NWFP, AJK, and Minfal. We have already established units in NWFP, Sindh and Minfal", sources added.
For the social mobilisation of the project, Minfal has short-listed three agencies ie Rural Support Programmes (RSPs), Nespak and Human Capital Management Institute. Minfal will finalise it on December 7 to whom it will award tender of the social mobilisation project. Sources told this scribe that allocation of less funds by the government is an obstacle in the start of this project. So, Minfal is demanding release of further funds of Rs 1.8 billion.