LAHORE: The Punjab government hopes to see a significant increase in the yields of various crops simply by providing certified seeds to farmers.

“We’re trying to improve the ratio of certified seed for a considerable growth in production starting with the wheat crop this year under a Rs12-billion national package for the all-important national staple food,” Agriculture Minister Malik Nauman Langrial said here on Tuesday.

“Sowing of wheat is going to start next month with just 17 per cent certified seed as the rest of the need will be fulfilled by the farming community from the grains they had saved from the previous crop. We’ll try to improve this ratio up to 50 per cent for this season and have convened a meeting with the public and private sector seed companies for the purpose.”

This will help gain around 400 kilogrammes more per acre yield to improve financial position of individual farmers, agriculture sector as well as the national economy, the minister told a group of reporters.

A similar policy is also being introduced for other important cash crops such as cotton, rice, sugarcane and oilseeds, he added.

Replying to a question, the minister said that the Punjab Seed Council has approved 31 new seed varieties of various crops, while many more will be approved for sowing in the next meeting of the body. The new varieties, he claimed, would be heat tolerant.

Answering a query, he said the authorities would reject a seed variety if it failed to win approval from all four agriculture laboratories, one of them in private sector, in the province. “But, now a policy decision has been taken that a variety will need to pass tests of any of the three laboratories so that the private sector may be encouraged to get involved in research and development work.”

About the Kisan Card project the government plans to launch for providing direct targeted subsidy to the farming community, Mr Langrial said that a campaign for registration of farmers is going on in full swing and hopefully the scheme will be formally launched from the third quarter of the ongoing financial year. “Lack of resources has kept the process slower otherwise it will have been launched soon after the budget [for 2019-20].”

The minister said the card would not only be used for providing targeted subsidy to the farmers but also to extend them loan facilities and, most importantly, for procuring their produce at officially designated rates.

He disclosed that with input from farmers the government has decided to undertake as a pilot project an initiative for setting up a dedicated market where certified seed, authentic pesticides and fertilizers as well as farm machinery would be available at subsidised rates.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2019