LAHORE: The Punjab government has proposed a sum of Rs19.53 billion as the Annual Development Programme (ADP) collectively for the agriculture, irrigation and livestock sectors for the year 2022-23.

The allocation of the development budget for agriculture according to the budget documents stands at over Rs14 billion and a sum of Rs3.65 billion out of it will be spent on ‘Punjab Resilient and Inclusive Agriculture Transformation (PRIAT). Under this project the government aimed at bringing in latest international technology to transform the agricultural sector on modern lines.

The government also intends to introduce eight new programmes under the research & development head to make possible increase in per acre yield of different lentils, peanut, blackberry and other high valued crops. It is hoped that it would increase prosperity in the rural folk.

According to the documents, the government also intends to promote incentive based crop zoning under which zoning of land of Punjab province will be carried out according to the potential of the lands and incentives and facilities will be provided to farmers of these areas according to it.

The government has proposed an allocation of Rs1 billion for rehabilitation of old bulldozers, Rs0.42 billion for godowns of food for testing facilities and Rs1 billion for the national programme for improvement of watercourses in Pakistan.

For livestock sector, the government has allocated a sum of Rs4.29 billion for the year 2022-23 to carry out various development schemes such as setting up of a sub-campus of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences. While another sum of Rs1.58 billion will be spent for launching of a programme to provide various facilities for livestock farmers in Lahore, DG Khan, Bahawalpur, Rawalpindi and Sargodha which are not available currently. It is proposed that Rs600 million will be spent during the next fiscal under this head.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022