July 4, 2002	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 22,1423

ISLAMABAD, July 3: The government has planned to accelerate the pace of tea production by expanding cultivation area to 800 acres in the next year.

According to official sources, public sector is being encouraged to cultivate about 300 acres while multinational companies will expand its farming to 500 acres of land.

The plucking process of tea plants is under progress and as soon as it is completed, the tea processing plant would start functioning during current month.

PARC had cultivated Tea plants over an area of 113 acres during last year while a multinational company also grew tea plants over an area of 236 acres.

The most difficult phase for the promotion of tea cultivation is to motivate the growers, which is a slow process for promotion of tea cultivation activity.

Agriculture Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP) has initiated a scheme to provide tea growers credit up to Rs60,000 per acre for promotion of tea production.—APP