LAHORE: Government of Punjab is providing subsidy facility and incentives to farmers under the National Plan to Increase Wheat Production per Acre to achieve 22 million metric tonnes of wheat production this year.
This was stated by Minister for Agriculture, Punjab Syed Hussain Jahanian Gardezi while addressing the participants of a seminar organized for raising awareness of wheat farmers in Sargodha district.
The Agriculture Minister said that Present Government under the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan and leadership of Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Khan Bazdar is taking steps to address the shortage of agricultural commodities and ensure food security at National level.
“Under Prime Minister Agriculture Emergency Program, wheat production per acre at a cost of Rs 12.59 billion is being implemented and under this program, exhibition plots, seminars and Farmers’ Day are being organized to introduce modern production technology among the farmers. In addition, during the financial year 2021-22, under this scheme, other agricultural inputs including modern agricultural machinery worth over Rs. 1 billion are also being provided at 50% subsidy for the promotion of mechanized cultivation of wheat,” he said.
The Minister further emphasized that farmers should use the recommendations of the Department of Agriculture, fertilizers and certified seeds to get higher yields of wheat so that the yield will achieve higher than last year. Wheat cultivation should be completed preferably from 1st November to 10th December. On the occasion, Punjab Agriculture Minister Syed Hussain Jahanian Gardezi distributed Kisan cards among the farmers and said that a revolutionary program of issuance of “kisan card” has been launched through which all subsidies in the form of cash transfer are directly transferred to the farmers’ account. So far more than 584,000 farmers have registered themselves to get the kisan card.
On this occasion, the provincial agriculture minister appealed to the farmers to complete the registration of the farmer card as soon as possible so that the government, by transferring the subsidy directly to their account and the farmers can buy agricultural inputs in a timely manner so that the production targets of important crops can be ensured by getting the subsidy in a timely manner.
Director General Agriculture (Extension) Dr. Muhammad Anjum, Director Agricultural Information Muhammad Rafiq Akhtar, Faiz Muhammad Kundi Director Sargodha Division, Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Khusro Nadir Gilani, Asif Ali and Deputy Director Agricultural Information Naveed Ismat Kahlon besides local Agriculture Department officials. Farmers and media representatives, a large number of participants attended.
