Government to Improve 8,264 Farms under PM Agriculture Emergency Program
Image Credits: Government of Pakistan on Twitter
PESHAWAR, Oct 09 (APP): Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has chalked out a comprehensive plan to strengthen 8,264 agriculture farms under the Prime Minister Agriculture Emergency Program worth Rs903 billion to alleviate poverty and generate employment opportunities for people of rural areas.
Officials in Agriculture and Livestock Department told APP on Friday that water-channels leading to these agriculture farms would be improved and soils would be leveled under range management techniques to bolster per acre production of all edible corps. Pakistan is blessed with small, medium and big size agriculture farms both in public and private sectors producing wheat, maize, sugarcane, rice and others seasonal crops in substantial quantity.
As many as 8264 agriculture farms on 52910.41 acres in Pakistan including 1540 on 5569.70 acres the province with 18pc KPK’s share were developed and efforts would be made to strengthen them under PM’s Agriculture Emergency Program. Focus would be paid on development of small farms upto 50 acres because of their greater number, easy accessibility and less investment requirement.
Out of 1255 farms of less than one-acre area in the country, 476.33 were found in KPK besides 2342 farms including 497 in KPK are of one to 2.5 acres, 1754 farms including 271 in KPK are of 2.5 to five acres, 1132 including 129 in KPK of 5 to 7.1 acres and 917 including 92 in KPK are under 7.5 to 12.5 acres.
Similarly, 561 farms in Pakistan including 49 in KPK are of 12.5 to 25 acres, 211 farms in the country including 18 in KPK are of 25 to 50 acres area, 67 farms including 5 in KPK of 50 to 100 acres area, 13 including 1 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 100 to 150 acres and 14 including 1 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are above 150 acres areas.
The official said Pakistan has a vast integrated area with land utilisation on over 20.95 million hectares including 0.87 million hectares in KPK with overall 4.15 percent share, adding that 22.06 million hectares are cultivated including 1.62 million hectares in KP and 35.80 uncultivated area including 4.55 million hectare in KPK besides 4.55 hectares are under forests including 1.18 million hectares in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
As many as 25,492 tons wheat including 1,155 tons in KPK was produced during 2017-18 besides rice 7,422 tons including 104 in KPK, sugarcane 811.02 tons including 5080 in KPK and maize 5702 including 866 tons in KPK during the said period.
The official said promotion of agriculture is a cornerstone of KPK Government’s policy and Rs 8.22 billion would be spent on 133 mega agriculture and livestock projects during the current fiscal year. Special attention is being paid to jdevelopment of agriculture and livestock in merged areas under accelerated implementation programme (AIP) in line with ten years tribal decade strategy (TDS) where mega projects like PM’s poultry program and calves fattening were started for socioeconomic development of tribesmen.
The KPK Government is spending huge financial resources on purchase of agricultural machinery and equipment to increase per acre yields. The number of tractors, which were 23,193 in 2016-17, has increased in 2018-19 to 27,334, thrashers from 7,965 to 9,013, tube-wells from 17,201 to 20,856 whereas cultivated area per tractor’s services was recorded from 69.88 to 68.01 hectares besides load per tube-well has been decreased from 94.88 to 89.14 hectares.
The KPK Government would launch special projects for water-conservation and management, increasing meat production and research on adoptability of new varieties including potatoes besides strengthening of vaccination services in merged areas.
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