LAHORE: US Political and Economic Chief of the US Consulate Lahore Ms. Kathleen Gibilisco called on Minister for Agriculture Punjab Syed Hussain Jahania Gardezi here at Civil Secretariat and discussed matters of mutual interest.
During the meeting, both the dignitaries agreed to promote partnership in agriculture sector. The Minister for Agriculture said that the US assistance in Research & Development (R&D) would yield positive results to help increase the agriculture productivity while its cooperation in the new cotton seed would sufficiently increase cotton production.
The Agriculture Minister pointed out that reforms and process of digitization are being introduced in the agriculture sector. Steps are being taken at the government level to achieve better quality as well as higher production of crops, the Minister concluded.
On this occasion,the Ms. Kathleen Gibilisco said that America would carry out its assistance program to fulfill the requirements of Pakistan in agriculture commodities and implements.
It merits mention here that Mr Gardezi has recently launched a campaign to grow more wheat under Agriculture Department Punjab. The last program in this series was held at Khawaja Farid University of Engineering and Information Technology, Rahim Yar Khan.
On this occasion, Agriculture Minister Syed Hussain Jahania Gardezi, speaking as chief guest, said that wheat is our strategic crop in which self-sufficiency increases the country’s prestige. He said that if we increase the production by 4 to 5 maunds per acre, then we can meet the food needs of the country.
Farmers of Rahim Yar Khan are innovative and this is the reason why this district excels in crop production, he added. He further said that under National Plan to Increase Wheat Production, subsidies are being provided to the farmers to increase the production of wheat per acre at a cost of 12.59 billion rupees.
He further said that this year, wheat cultivation target for Punjab was 16.5 million acres while the production target 22 million metric tons has been set for which all resources are being utilized.
