Daily Times

Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi inaugurated the first commercial nursery of Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) at Gulberg, here on Saturday.

He visited the nursery and witnessed flowers and plants placed in the nursery. He also inspected the flower shop and ordered to improve quality of bouquets.

The CM said the Parks and Horticulture Authority would establish more flower shops in Lahore. Flower shops on the pattern of Lahore will also be established in Multan, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and other cities.

The PHA DG gave a briefing about various kinds of plants and flowers in the nursery and said that people could buy plants, flowers and bouquets from the commercial nursery at cheap rates. Free delivery service of plants, flowers and bouquets at homes will also be provided. More than 400 kinds of plants and flowers will be available at the nursery. Local and foreign plants will be provided at the nursery. PHA will also provide landscape designing and planning services.

Secretary Housing, Secretary Information, Commissioner Lahore, CCPO, DGPR, DIG Operations, Deputy Commissioner and DG PHA were also present on the occasion.

All steps taken to ensure availability of quality agri inputs: Secretary Agriculture Punjab Nader Chattha has said that wheat crop would be cultivated over 16 million acres of land in the province this year and the government was trying its optimum best and taking all possible measures to ensure provision of quality agricultural inputs to farmers.

Addressing a Farmer’s Day function, he said that last year, the Faisalabad division in Punjab province got the highest average wheat yield of 38 maunds per acre. Now, it’s the time that farmers should cultivate wheat over maximum area with national spirit so that the food security could be achieved, he added.

He said that the government was contemplating to reduce input cost of the crops in addition to providing quality fertilizers and pesticides so that the farmers could get abundant production of the wheat during Rabi 2023-24.

He directed the officers of Agriculture (Extension) Department to take immediate steps to ensure provision of quality agricultural inputs in the market.

He also directed to take action against the profiteers and illegal hoarders without any discrimination so as to save the farmers from economic exploitation.

The secretary agriculture said that the farmers should send a WhatsApp message / voice message to the phone number 0345-7609359 against those who were selling substandard agricultural inputs and the agriculture officers would take prompt action against the accused.

He further said that the wheat crop would be cultivated over 0.575 million acres in Faisalabad and its production target was set as 40 maunds per acre.

Later, the Secretary Agriculture also visited Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI) Faisalabad and inspected wheat and oilseeds research areas in addition to taking briefing on research activities.

Speaking on the occasion, the secretary urged the agricultural scientists to discover varieties of the crops so that these could give maximum production despite harsh weather conditions and pest attack.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Faisalabad Abdullah Nayyar Sheikh, Additional Commissioner Faisalabad Tariq Khan Niazi, Director General Agriculture Extension Dr. Ishtiaq Hasan, Chief Scientist AARI Dr. Akhtar, Director Agriculture Extension Chaudhry Abdul Hameed and Director Agricultural Information Punjab Rai Mudassar Abbas were also present on the occasion in addition to a large number of agriculture officers and farmers.