LAHORE, June 24: The Punjab government will spend Rs656 million on 40 agriculture development schemes during the next financial year, Punjab Finance Minister Tariq Hameed claimed during the budget speech.

All these schemes are related to improving per acre yield, achieving food security, developing high value and less water consuming crops, increasing acreage of basmati rice and cultivating crops to decrease import of edible oil.

Agriculture research will cost Rs144 million during the next fiscal year and Rs768 million have been allocated for Agriculture Extension Wing. Horticulture and marketing will cost Rs6 million.

The government had fixed 2.5 million wheat procurement target for the year, but it had already purchased over 2.8 million tons. The government would spend Rs3 billion on storage of this wheat.

The government, he claimed, had already exported 300,000 tons of wheat and more orders were in the pipeline.

In order to mitigate the impact of drought, the federal government has allocated Rs9.65 billions for a three-year programme. The Punjab will get Rs2.31 billion out of this Rs9.65 billion federal allocation and will start development schemes in 13 calamity-hit districts of the province.

Initially, each district has been given Rs100 million so that district governments could spend the amount according to their priorities. Rest of Rs1.01 billion would also be spent in these districts through different departments.

A barani college will be established at Chakwal and a university at Rawalpindi. A separate cell will also be established at the Punjab Agriculture Board to study the impact of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and suggest ways to deal with the same.