KARACHI: The Sindh government has launched Rs6 billion Irrigated Agriculture Productivity Enhancement project to increase per acre yield of various crops.
The Sindh government will share 20per cent cost of the project while the World Bank and growers would share 62pc and 18pc, respectively.
To be completed in six years, the project envisages concrete lining of 55,000 water courses and building modern drip and sprinkle irrigation system on 35,000 acres on cost-sharing basis.
The farmers will be provided 1,100 laser land-leveling equipment and deep tillers to soften the hard soil.
Around 1,000 drip irrigation kits will also be distributed free of cost among poor farmers to enable them to develop kitchen gardens in the backyard of their homes to grow vegetables for their families consumption.
The department is also launching a scheme to install 100 solar tube-wells to protect crops from adverse effects of frequent load-shedding. The government will pre-qualify firms for installing solar tube-wells on farmers’ choice.
A scrutiny committee will review all applications for solar tube-wells while a monitoring committee would supervise the process, from the installation to the payment of subsidy.
The new projects, to be launched by the agriculture department during 2015-16, include Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture scheme which envisages free distribution of land, seeds, fertiliser and technology to help poor farmers grow vegetables, set up poultry and livestock sheds for home consumption.
The Rs575m project, with a WB grant of Rs500 million, is aimed at eliminating malnutrition among 10,000 farmers families. The project study reveals that about 75pc of the rural population, mainly women and children, suffer from malnutrition and the diseases resulting from lack of basic food availability for the poor families. The Sindh government will share the cost of the project by Rs75m.
Equipment and apparatus have been provided to the chillies growers to save their product from –aflatoxin--the deadly virus, which is the main cause of ban on export of the produce to Europe. The action has been taken under Rs8.86bn Sindh Agriculture Growth Project now under way with the WB assistance to enhance productivity and value-addition for four crops, namely chillies, onion, rice and dates.
The Agriculture Research Institute Tando Jam has initiated research to develop hybrid varieties of rice which give 30pc more yield compared to the course varieties.
Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2015
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