FAISALABAD, Nov 7: The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) will reclaim 25,000 acres of saline land at an estimated cost of Rs178 million to boost the agrarian economy.

A PAEC spokesman said here on Thursday that the reclamation of land was a part of its five-year Saline Agriculture Farmer Participatory Development (2002-07) programme.

He said under the plan, various techniques developed by the PAEC scientists to make the saline land reusable would be transferred to the farmers.

He said according to some estimates in irrigated areas of the Indus river, the country was suffering $3 billion loss annually due to salinity.

He said a new project was being launched simultaneously throughout the country to disseminate and optimize saline agriculture technology with the participation of farmers, departments concerned, community board based organization and local students.

According to him, the PAEC and the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) formulated this project after studying a “Situation Analysis” report jointly conducted by them on salt affected soils in consultation with the farming communities. Five site facilitators, 10 agronomists, 10 soil mobilizers and 25 field assistants have been recruited to implement the project.