Daily Times

Provincial Minister for Industries and Commerce SM Tanvir has said that there is great need to change the agriculture sector from traditional methods of farming to modern mechanised farming to increase per acre yield of major crops.

Presiding over the third meeting of the Agriculture Task Force at New Minister Block, Civil Secretariat on Monday, he said, “Public-private sector has to work together to improve the agricultural value chain for enhancing agricultural exports.”

Caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi constituted an agricultural task force under his own supervision to improve the agricultural value chain. Various proposals were approved to increase agricultural productivity, including promotion of certified seeds of approved varieties to increase wheat and cotton production, Punjab Soil Fertility Restoration Programme to increase soil fertility, 50 per cent subsidy to small farmers for 60 bags of gypsum and make 50,000 acres of barren land in Punjab arable.

SM Tanvir ordered for starting a pilot project in Mankira, Chobara and Noorpur tehsils for resettlement of Thal, to build five new small dams in Potohar region and water testing lab at the tehsil level in Punjab. He said that a state-of-the-art research centre would be built in Faisalabad with the cooperation of China to promote agricultural research. The provincial minister also reviewed the proposals for providing warehousing, cold storage and processing facilities to small farmers in Punjab under public-private partnership. On this occasion, Secretary Agriculture Punjab Iftikhar Ali Sahoo said that cotton and wheat were cash crops for the country.