‘Agriculture body reactivated to solve farmers’ problems’

LAHORE:Under the Transforming Agriculture Punjab Programme of Chief Minister Punjab, a new era of agricultural development and prosperity of farmers has been restarted in the province, said Provincial Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Syed Ashiq Hussain Kirmani.

While addressing the first meeting of the Agriculture Commission here, the minister said that the government was determined to bring back the golden era of agricultural development in Punjab. Under the Transforming Agriculture Punjab Programme of the Punjab chief minister, a new era of agriculture development and prosperity of farmers had been restarted in the province. Allocated budget in FY 2024-25 had increased up to 300 per cent for agricultural development, he added. Under Kisan Package at the cost of billions of rupees, a new green revolution would come in Punjab and the fate of farmers will also be changed. The government was determined to bring back the golden era of agricultural development, the minister said. Finance Minister Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman, MPA Rana Ayaz Saleem, Usama Khan Leghari, Rana Ijaz, Ms Ishrat Ashraf along with Secretary Agriculture, Punjab Iftikhar Ali Sahoo, Secretary Livestock, Punjab Muhammad Masood Anwar and other members attended the meeting. The members of the Agriculture Commission presented their expert opinions for the development of agriculture and solving the problems of the farmers.

The minister said that the Agriculture Commission had been reactivated to solve the farmers' problems on a priority basis. He said that in the past, the agriculture sector in the province had been declining due to lack of planning.

According to the vision of CM Punjab, the focus had been on modern agricultural research with the cooperation of agricultural universities and research institutes. He added that strengthening the value chain was very important for the development of agriculture sector. For this purpose, all the stakeholders will be gathered under one roof and recommendations would be formulated after consultation with them. Apart from this, the government was promoting agricultural mechanisation, green tractor scheme and shifting the tube-well to solar system to reduce production cost of farmers.

Small farmers (owners of up to 12.5 acres of land) constitute 90 per cent of the total farmers, the main focus of the Punjab government was to provide facilities to them. He maintained that 1,000 agricultural graduates would be employed in Agriculture Department under the internship programme for one year. The provincial minister said that the CM had introduced a policy for the first time to differentiate between green and brown land and had formed a committee which would play its role in stopping the construction of commercial and housing societies in Green Land.

Secretary Agriculture Iftikhar Ali Sahoo said that the Agriculture Commission was the largest official forum for consultation regarding agriculture in Punjab. He said that last year there was a record growth of 6.5 per cent in the agriculture sector due to which the country's GDP increased by 2.3 per cent. Various committees would be formed in the Agriculture Commission to solve the problems of the farmers as soon as possible, he added.