LAHORE: The Punjab government has approved the agriculture department’s 11-point transformation plan worth Rs236bn to address the core issues of agriculture.

The transformation plan ranges from the provision of interest-free loans to small farmers for watercourses’ improvement, tube wells’ solarisation and laser leveling to legislative action and institutional reforms.

Speaking to Dawn, Punjab Agriculture Secretary Iftikhar Ali Sahoo said the initiatives announced in the plan would address the fundamental issues like farmers’ access to credit, quality of agricultural research, improving agricultural extension and water efficiency. He said the projects would contribute towards farmers’ profitability through enhanced crop productivity and crop diversification. While the institutional reforms and new legislation would upgrade the regulatory framework to ensure quality of agriculture inputs.

“Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has approved the Rs150bn Punjab Kissan Card to enable the agriculture department to offer interest-free loans to 500,000 small farmers through the Bank of Punjab to purchase agricultural inputs. A sum of Rs60bn has been allocated for the CM Programme for Improvement of Watercourses in Punjab to improve some 7,300 watercourses with a 70:30 cost sharing basis across the province,” Mr Sahoo said.

In the current situation when power cost is skyrocketing, according to the secretary, the government has approved a Rs10b programme for solarisation of tube wells to convert some 5,000 electric tube wells to solar systems by 2026. The government will provide about 1,000 laser levelers in the first phase of six months and 2,280 units in the second phase until 2026 at the cost of Rs1.6bn. Through the agricultural mechanisation programme, the farmers would be provided with 24,800 agricultural implements until 2026, out of which 1,800 implements would be distributed by October this year at a cost of Rs7bn.

The secretary said model agriculture centres would be established at districts’ level in the first phase, which will be gradually expanded to tehsil and town level in the second phase. These centres would provide all agricultural inputs, machinery, credit and allied services to the farmers at a centralised point.

Mr Sahoo said the government had approved the engagement of 500 agriculture graduates, revitalisation of the extension wing and establishment of the Pak-China Research and Development Centre with a total budget of Rs2bn each. The department’s research wing would be revamped with the establishment of three centres of excellence for cotton, rice and wheat at a cost of Rs1bn. Moreover, university and academia linkages would be established along with active collaboration with the private sector to upgrade the quality of agricultural research in Punjab.

According to the officer’s claims, the government is also ready to embark on legislative action and institutional reforms to amend the Fertilizer Control Order 1973, Punjab Agriculture Pesticides Act-2012 and revive the Punjab Agriculture Commission.

Moreover, he said, the task of revamping the Punjab Seed Corporation and Agricultural Research Board would be undertaken within a year.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2024