60,000 acres land for agriculture graduates and farmers: Minister

LAHORE - The Punjab Minister for Agriculture Ahmad Ali Olakh has said that 60,000 acres agricultural land would be given to Agriculture Graduates and poor farmers during the ongoing financial year while a master plan worth Rs 2 billion to enhance wheat production is also being prepared that would help overcome wheat shortage in the country.

The Provincial Minister was speaking at Bio Tech Workshop at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday. The LCCI President Mohammad Ali Mian, Vice President Shafqat Saeed Piracha and Chairman LCCI Standing Committee on Bio Technology and Genetic Engineering Dr Shahid also spoke on the occasion.

The Minister said that per acre yield is on the decline because the research work in this particular sector is not benefiting the farmer owing to communication gap. He said that share of agriculture sector in the GDP has reduced to 20pc from 38 per cent, which is a matter of major concern for the government. He said 10,000 tractors would be provided on subsidized rates to all those farmers who have less than 25 acres of land while other agri inputs would also be ensured on subsidized prices.

The Minister said that a huge amount of Rs one billion would be spent on Agriculture research while for livestock promotion Rs 1.90 billion would be allocated.

The Minister said that a chain of cold storages would be built at airports with an amount of Rs 84 crore that would help enhance the export of perishable goods and in this particular area the involvement of private sector would be ensured that would run these projects.

Ahmad Ali Olakh said that 100 more bulldozers are being imported while 335 bulldozers that have been declared useless would also be made useful. He said that a Task Force on Biogas had started working on various biogas projects in different parts of the country.

On Mechanised Farming, the provincial Minister said that the govt would spend an amount of Rs 56 crore for the promotion of mechanized farming.

Speaking on the occasion, the LCCI President Mohammad Ali Mian said that government would have to take concrete measures for the promotion of agriculture sector as the future is with agro dollar not with the petro-dollar. He said that Pakistan despite being an agro-based country and abundant resources is not performing the way it should. Citing the example of Thailand, Mohammad Ali Mian said that Thailand is not a Muslim country but its share in 200 billion dollar export of Hilal meat is $5 billion while Pakistan's share is negligible so we all should think over that why non-Muslim countries are taking lead over Muslim countries in Halal Meat export. He said agriculture continues to be the single largest sector, a dominant driving force for growth and the main source of livelihood for 66 percent of the Pakistan's population. It accounts for 20.9 percent of the GDP and implies 43.4 percent of the total work force.

But the sector is facing two major problems: firstly, our productions per acre are lower than many countries. For instance our per hectare production of wheat is only 2.5 tons compared to 4.5 tons in India and 6.2 tons in Egypt. Our sugarcane production per hectare is 45.1 tons compared to 65.2 tons of India and 90.9 tons of Egypt. Our potatoes production is 17.2 tons per hectare compared to 20 tons of India and 23.8 of Egypt. Mohammad Ali Mian said that secondly, round 40% of our production is lost as post-harvest losses due to lack of preservation.

He said that Pakistan is fifth largest producer of milk in the world but are unfortunately preserving a little amount of this heritage due to lack of the use of bio-technologies and the cool chain systems.

The use of biotechnology can not only considerably enhance our productivity but also avoid post-harvest losses.

He said that the genetically improved varieties should be available in the market. Genetically improved varieties of livestock are also being developed by the Livestock & Dairy Development Departments.