The Punjab Minister for Agriculture Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh has constituted a committee to submit its recommendation and PC-I for mechanisation research and engineering extension to promote mechanised agriculture in the province. He issued these directives while presiding over a meeting of agricultural engineers of field wing of the provincial agriculture department here on Friday.
The Minister was briefed about performance of the field wing and facilities being extended to growers under this wing. The Minister said that agricultural engineering enjoys status of backbone in the agriculture department. He called for an effective planning and special attention for advancement in mechanization. He said that the present provincial government had provided subsidy of Rs 200,000 each on 20,000 tractors during the last two years. On the whole a subsidy of Rs 4 billion was extended, while tractors and other agricultural implements worth Rs 110 million were distributed among the growers under wheat production competition 2009.
Aulakh said that some progress had been made in the promotion of mechanization in agriculture but there was still a long way to go for achieving the targets. He hoped that launching of engineering extension projects would help the growers in levelling the land, irrigating more land with less water, high efficiency irrigation system and mechanization agriculture, which would ultimately increase per acre yield significantly.