LAHORE, July 27: Punjab Agriculture Minister Arshad Lodhi has said laser land levellers will help farmers save 30 per cent water and increase yield up to 25 per cent.

Briefing journalists at the Agriculture House after launching the laser land levelling scheme on Wednesday, he said applications were being invited from farmers to provide levellers on half of its price in all union councils of the Punjab.

He claimed that time of irrigation would also be curtailed by up to 50 per cent following the levelling of field. In total, 2,500 levellers would be provided in irrigated areas of the Punjab in the next three years. Around 500 laser levellers would be given during the current fiscal, he added.

Around 1,220,000 acres would be levelled in the next three years, which would help conserve 910,000 acre feet of water, the minister claimed. However, he said this project was not a substitute to dams.

“Levelling of land would only restore water, not generate any additional amount of it. Introduction of precision land-levelling technology would be an impetus in increasing production of all crops,” he said.

The agriculture minister said the private sector was being involved in provision of laser levellers and training of potential buyers. Representatives of farmers and local governments would be included in allotment committees at the district level, he said.

Mushtaq Gill, the project head, later briefed the meeting on technical aspects of laser levellers and progress on lining of watercourses.

He said the technology was introduced in the Punjab in 1985 through On Farm Water Management programme.

A laser leveller has indigenously been developed by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, which drastically reduced its cost. In the present scenario of water shortages, it has become imperative to develop strategies for efficient utilization of water at farm gate.

He said training would be imparted to 1,500 farmers and service providers in laser levelling, farm layout planning and operation and maintenance of laser units.

He said synchronization of laser levelling and watercourses’ lining would prove a perfect solution to water conservation issues at the farm gate level. About improvement of watercourses, Gill said recruitment, training and deployment of staff has been completed according to schedule. In total, 2,467 watercourses were being lined in fiscal 2004-05.