LAHORE: The Punjab government has set a target of cultivating wheat on 16.5 million acres in the province, and made sowing wheat compulsory on the government’s agricultural land.
Chief Secretary Punjab Zahid Akhtar Zaman presided over an important meeting to review the targets of wheat cultivation at the Civil Secretariat on Friday. The secretary of agriculture, commissioner, deputy commissioner Lahore, and officers of the agriculture department attended the meeting while all the divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners participated through video link.
The agriculture department officials briefed the chief secretary that the target has been set to cultivate wheat on 1.49 million acres in the Rawalpindi division, 1.74 million acres in Sargodha, and 1.88 million acres in the Faisalabad division. They said that wheat would be sowed on 1.25 million acres in Gujarat division, 1.15 million acres in Gujranwala, and 1.33 million acres in Lahore. They mentioned that the target has been fixed to cultivate the grain on 0.92 million acres in the Sahiwal division, 1.82 million acres in the Multan division, 2.61 million in Bahawalpur, and 2.29 million acres in DG Khan Division.
The Chief Secretary asked the deputy commissioners to give all possible facilities to farmers for wheat cultivation, adding that the agriculture department must provide full support and guidance to growers. He said that during the wheat sowing campaign, the officers of the agriculture department should focus only on achieving the set goals as the improvement of the agricultural sector is the priority of the government.
The secretary of agriculture gave a detailed briefing at the meeting. He said that the wheat sowing campaign would continue from November 1 to 30 and committees have been formed at the provincial, divisional, district and tehsil levels for monitoring. He said that farmers would be able to buy agricultural inputs on interest-free loans from registered dealers across the province through the Kissan Card.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024