LAHORE: The Punjab government on Monday claimed to have spared Rs123 billion for agriculture and its sub-sectors – livestock and irrigation – for next year, saying that “the province has adopted Farmer Centric Approach” in its budget for 2025-26.

For agriculture alone, Rs80bn have been earmarked, which is 24 per cent more than the last year’s allocation, finance minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman told the provincial assembly during his budget speech.

The province provided 9,500 tractors to farmers under the “Green Tractor Scheme” last year and spent Rs9.7bn on it. It proved to be a tremendous success and the Punjab plans second phase of the scheme this year and has allocated Rs5.5bn for it. Considering the success and contribution of it, a similar “High Power Tractor Programme” is being launched this year at a cost of Rs10bn.

He said Punjab would continue with “Kissan Card” and “Solarisation of Agriculture Tubewells” schemes because of their massive benefits to agriculture and the government is sparing Rs6.3bn and Rs8.7bn, respectively. Last year, the province had provided Rs106bn interest-free loans to around a million farmers, which made on-time purchase of seeds, fertiliser and other inputs possible and helped farming.

PKI demands price commission for crops commercial viability; says budget silent on soil health, water scarcity

The minister said the revival of the citrus sector would be made possible with an allocation of Rs1bn, which would not only help revive the sector but also increase exports to the world market and earn foreign exchange. The province would also improve 1,200 water courses at a cost of Rs8bn and Agriculture Farm Mechanisation Programme is there to improve efficiency with the government subsidising seeder, rice transplanters, combine and rice harvesters and balers, with Rs9bn budgetary allocation. Another Rs7bn has been set aside for “Transformation of Agriculture in Pothohar”, which would be spent on efficient water irrigation systems, solar pumps and small dams.

Since agriculture is a natural phenomenon, crops need some form of financial protection. The Punjab is responding with Rs1.5bn for insurance schemes for crops.

He said the Punjab is also launching an integrated remodeling plan of barrages and link canals. Rasul-Qadirabad Canal will be re-modeled with Rs1bn. Similarly, Qadirabad-Baloki Link Canal would take another Rs1.2bn for restoration and re-modeling. A Rs9bn New Ravi Syphon would help district Kasur’s irrigation. A small dam, for which Rs4.2bn have been set aside, would help irrigate around 2,280 acres in Rawalpindi district.

On the other hand, Khalid Khokhar of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) says: “This budget is not for farmers. They do not need packages, what they need is rates for their crops to keep the cropping sector commercially viable. If that is not done, the farmers do not own such a budget.”

Elaborating his point, Khokhar says, “We have been arguing for establishment of a price commission, which should calculate cost of production, add farmers’ profit margin (up to 25pc) and the government should ensure that price. It is as simple as that. All of the rest is political and financial gimmickry, which is not needed. Two other crucial areas are soil health and water scarcity. The Punjab budget is silent on both. How can such an insensitive exercise, which does not touch farmers and farming, be called a budget for farmers?”

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2025