Farmer-in-Hand project launched

MULTAN: In a bid to revive the dying trend of cooperative farming and create awareness among small farmers, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture (MNSUA) has launched the Farmer-in-Hand Project in Jahanian. Under the project, the university was offering technical expertise and financial assistance to 46 small farmers for maximum production of cotton sown at an area of 540 acres at Chak No 109/10R, said MNSUA Vice Chancellor Dr Asif Ali while talking to the agency here on Sunday. He said the university was working on the pattern resembled to modern trend of cooperative farming, adding the university formed a group of 46 small farmers and cultivated cotton crop on 540 acres in the village. The university launched a comprehensive survey in the village before starting the project in which the MNSUA economic team obtained data of small farmers, their land, their cultivation practices, previous crop production average, use of machinery, record of inputs and outputs, he added. The VC said another team of MNSUA experts analysed different factors, which could help promote cotton crop.