‘Efforts afoot to improve agriculture’

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Mohibullah Khan has said that efforts were underway to improve agriculture sector that has an important role in national economy, crop production of the landowners and food needs of the province.

He was addressing the closing ceremony of the training course for mango farm water management officers and engineers in Peshawar.He directed officials to ensure the provision of maximum facilities to the farmers so that their income can be increased substantially. He said on-farm water management plays an important role in preventing water wastage.

In his speech, Mohibullah Khan said that water, food security, climate change and other important projects are a good initiative of the current provincial government for the welfare of people, which will benefit the farmers and the common people.

He said the annual budget of the Agriculture Department had been increased from Rs2 billions to Rs55 billion, while the budget will reach Rs130 billion. Before the PTI government, money has not been spent on this important sector by any government, he claimed.

He said that in-farm water management has an important role to reduce the wastage of water and provincial government is taking serious steps to save water because in the coming times, there would be a major problem of water shortage all over the world.

Speaking on the occasion, Director General on Farm Water Management Javed Iqbal Khattak said that the training course organised under the project would be very useful for engineers. At the end of the ceremony, the minister and director general distributed certificates to the officers who completed the training course.