Daily Times

Provincial Minister for Agriculture Hussain Jahanian Gardezi said on Thursday that the government was providing subsidy and incentives to wheat growers to enhance productivity as increase in wheat production was imperative to achieve food security.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of wheat cultivation campaign at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) here, he said that the Punjab government had fixed a target of 16.5 million acres for wheat cultivation this year, which would help achieve wheat production target of 21 million metric tons.

He said that the UAF students must participate in the campaign to convince farmers to cultivate wheat on maximum area of their lands. In this regard, they should also provide technical guidance to growers at their doorsteps. He said that wheat was most important crop. This year, due to devastating floods, wheat seeds stored in the homes were damaged. Therefore, the federal and provincial governments were working together in the flood affected areas to ensure timely cultivation of wheat.

He said that Punjab produces nearly 75 per cent of the total wheat production. He said that wheat crop could lead to economic stability of farmers. Hence, in order to make wheat crop profitable this year, the government had fixed wheat support price at Rs 3,000 per 40-kg so that the farmers could bring maximum area under wheat cultivation.