LAHORE (The Thursday Times) — Farmers in Punjab have sown 52% of the province’s wheat target for this season, and the area under the crop is 7.7% larger than at the same point last year, the provincial agriculture department said.
The figures were presented at a meeting chaired by Agriculture Minister Syed Ashiq Hussain Kirmani at the Civil Secretariat on Friday. Officials told him that line sowing had been used on 51% of the area planted so far, and that certified seed made up 44%.
Kirmani told field staff to step up their support for farmers so that the rest of the target is met, and to make sure quality seed and fertiliser are available at the government’s notified prices. He named meeting the wheat target, recovering Kissan Card loans, stopping crop residue burning, and acting against fake fertiliser as the department’s main priorities.
Kissan Card and tractors
Under the fifth phase of the Kissan Card scheme, farm loans worth Rs100 billion have been approved for one million farmers, the meeting was told. Of those, 818,000 farmers have already received credit, and Rs26 billion has been drawn.
In the Green Tractor Programme, 1,840 tractors were handed out in the fourth phase. The fifth phase plans to provide 9,500 locally made and imported tractors. The department has received about 305,000 applications, and 188,000 have been verified.
Officials also reported that 139 of a planned 1,000 groundwater recharge wells have been completed and 97 small dams built in the Potohar region. Pay orders worth Rs1.34 billion have gone to more than 9,000 farmers under the Apna Khait Apna Rozgar programme, and the supply of super seeders under the Punjab Clean Air Programme has been completed.
Watch on stubble fires
The meeting also reviewed the rice harvest and the effort to stop farmers burning crop residue, which adds to the smog that settles over Lahore and other cities each winter. Kirmani said monitoring must carry on through weekends and holidays, and that action should be taken against anyone caught burning stubble, whoever they are.
Lahore again topped the world’s pollution rankings this week, as new provincial squads raced to put out stubble fires.
Punjab grows most of Pakistan’s wheat, and sowing runs into December. In Sindh, the provincial government is paying a Rs17 billion wheat subsidy to 550,000 farmers from November 20.
