MULTAN: The Punjab government will distributed free of cost five high value varieties of date palm plants among the farmers in nine districts of southern Punjab.

This was stated by Punjab Agriculture Secretary Muhammad Mehmood while addressing the heads of divisional and district agriculture department, Multan division, at a biannual performance review meeting held here on Thursday at Mango Research Institute.

He said under the directive of the chief minister, the agriculture department had started a five-year project at a cost of Rs780 million to distribute Ajwa, Barhee, Amber, Khulas and Midjaul varieties in Multan, Bahawalpur, Jhang, Rahim Yar Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Layyah, Muzaffargarh, Bhakkar and Rajanpur.

“Distribution of the plants of seedless kinnow at subsidised rates in Sargodha, Toba Tek Singh, Mandi Bahauddin, Sahiwal, Vehari and Layyah is also part of this project,” he said.

Mr Mehmood said the provincial government had banned cotton sowing before April 1 and the farmers were advised to avoid sowing cotton before that.

“The timely completion of the projects is the priority of the government as economic development is not possible without achieving the targets set for the agriculture sector.”

He said latest farming techniques in Punjab were being introduced. Sufficient funds had been allocated to convert government agricultural farms into model seed farms while the use of information communication technology in agriculture sector would also enhance the productivity.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2018