MIRPUR: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government decided to establish large agricultural farms in Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan in order to meet food security and nutritional needs of the state official sources said on Tuesday.
In this regard AJK Prime Minister, Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan sent a joint communique to provincial chief ministers asking them to allot land so that the AJK government could develop model agricultural forms in their respective provinces, the sources told APP.
The prime minister, the sources continued, has sought allotment of 25 thousand acres of land from the government of Sindh, 30 thousand acres from the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 1 lakh acres from the government of Balochistan, 50 thousand acres from the government of Punjab and 02 acres from the government of Gilgit-Baltistan.
The development and other expenses of these agricultural farms in all provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan will be borne by the Azad Jammu Kashmir government, the sources said.
The AJK government. the prim minister said. would develop the land on its own to establish model agricultural farms to fulfill the food requirements of the state.This process, he said would not only strengthen the Pakistan’s economy but also cement the links between the state and the provinces.
Due to the lack of agricultural-riched land in the liberated territory, he said, the government had decided to set up its own agricultural farms in Pakistan.
The prime minister expressed the hope that the initiative would go a long way to address the issue of food security in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.