Provincial Minister for Agriculture, Arbab Muhammad Ayub Jan has called upon the farming community to bring maximum area of waste land under cultivation so as to end the on-going food crises and attained self sufficiency in this vital sector. He said that the slogan of "Grow Wheat and Remove Hunger" was selected for farmers so as to raise awareness among the farming community about the benefits of land reclamation.
He was talking to farmers' community of Akbarpura and representative of local bodies here at his residence on Monday. Arbab Ayub said that wheat cultivation has been started in NWFP from November first, 2008 adding that some kinds of wheat would be cultivated from November 31 to December 31, next.
He said that 10000 high breed seed of wheat would be provided to farmers on concession prices in order to enhance the cultivation of wheat in the province adding that strict action would be taken against elements involved in black marketing of fertilisers and substandard seeds.
Provincial minister said that monitoring teams and administration has been directed to conduct raids against the corrupt elements. The NWFP agriculture department has prepared as many as 1000 model plots of wheat, he said, adding that as part of the government's efforts to enhance wheat production in the province, the sugar mills have been directed to start sugar crushing in the first week of November.
Moreover, he went on to add that Agricultural Development Bank and Khyber Bank would provide loans to farmers on soft terms and condition under one window operation and the agriculture department would also provide maximum facilities to the farmers.
He said that 200,000 acres of barren land would be reclaimed in the current fiscal year in NWFP for which bulldozers and other agricultural machinery would be imported from China. The spray and drop system of irrigation would be reactivated besides digging three new canals for reclaiming million of acres barren land and enhancing the per acre yield.