QUETTA, April 4: Federal Food and Agriculture Minister Khair Mohammed Junejo on Thursday urged the farmers to adopt trickle irrigation system for their fruit orchards as water reservoirs were drying up.

“With the introduction of trickle irrigation system the production of fruit would increase and maximum use of available water would be ensured,” Mr Junejo said in a meeting with a delegation of farmers and farm owners.

He said the Agriculture Development Bank (ADBP) had allocated Rs4 billion for installation of modern irrigation system on the farms and the farmers should approach the bank for loans.

The ADBP, he said, would provide loans to the farmers on soft terms.

About provision of 100,000 tube wells announced by the president last year for the province, the minister said the farmers willing to install a tube well might do so by bearing half of the expenditure.

He assured the delegation that 50,000 tons of wheat would be procured in the Nasirabad district. However, the delegation demanded that 100,000 tons wheat should be procured to save them from financial hardship. The Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Supply Corporation was procuring wheat in Sindh and Punjab while farmers of Nasirabad were still waiting, they complained.

Regarding the demand for providing shelter at Panjgur and Quetta airports to stack grapes, apples and dates for export, Federal Commerce Minister Razzaq Dawood, who was also present, said the storage facilities would be provided from Export Promotion Bureau fund.

Regarding the setting up of an apple processing plant, he said the government would welcome private sector investment on 20:80 equity ratio for the purpose.

The farmers’ representatives informed the ministers that the province produced 300,000 tons of grapes of export varieties and about 500,000 tons of apple annually.

They demanded help under the drought relief package and said one-fourth of fruit orchards in the area had gone dry as 3,500 tubes wells had run out of water.