LAHORE: The Punjab Agriculture Department (PAD) has launched a Rs 68 billion five-year programme to provide modern irrigation facilities to farmers to help mitigate the impact of climate change, provide an environment conducive for investment to the private sector in the agricultural sector.

This programme will directly benefit 1.3 million rural families in the province, said the Secretary Agriculture Punjab Nadir Chatha during a meeting with the Senior Agriculture Economist, World here on Monday.

Out of the Rs 68 billion, Rs 45 billion was being provided by the World Bank for the project which would help enhancing the water productivity on the farms.

It was hoped that the project would help increasing the crop production by 25 percent and increasing water production capacity by 20 percent in the province.

Additional Secretary Agriculture Planning Captain Waqas Rashid (retd), Director General Agriculture Reform Irrigation Punjab Malik Muhammad Akram were also present during the meeting.

Secretary Agriculture Punjab Nadir Chattha further said the project would also create employment opportunities for more than 5,000 rural youth.

On the occasion, Director General Agriculture (Irrigation Reform) Punjab Malik Muhammad Akram informed about the implementation of the project. Under this project, 3,000 canals were being paved, high efficiency irrigation system was being installed on 40,000 acres and solar system was being installed on 20,000 acres.

In addition, One million acre feet of water would be saved annually across the province and water transportation would be improved up to about 6 00,000 acres, which would improve the distribution of water among the farmers by 40 percent.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023