PM Agriculture Emergency Program
APP
PESHAWAR
Khyber Pakthunkhwa 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 8264.48 agriculture farms on 52910.41 acres in Pakistan including 1539.83 on 5569.70 acres the province with 18pc KP’s share were developed and efforts would be made to strengthen it under PM’s Agriculture Emergency Program.
Focus would be paid on development of small farms upto 50 acres because of its increased number, easy accessibilities and required less investment.
Out of 1254.72 farms of less than one-acre area in the country, 476.33 were found in KP besides 2342.23 farms including 497.08 in KP are of one to 2.5 acres, 1754 farms including 271.16 in KP are of 2.5 to five acres, 1132 including 129.01 in KP of 5 to 7.1 acres and 917.01 including 91.85 in KP are under 7.5 to 12.5 acres.
Similarly, 560.75 farms in Pakistan including 49.22 in KP are of 12.5 to 25 acres, 210.91 farms in country including 18.18 in KP are 25 to 50 acres area, 66.87 farms including 5.22 in KP of 50 to 100 acres area, 12.61 including 1.03 in Khyber Pakthunkhwa from 100 to 150 acres and 13.55 including 0.76 in Khyber Pakthunkhwa are above 150 acres areas.
The official said Pakistan has vast integrated area with land utilization on over 20.95 million hectares including 0.87 million hectares in KP with overall 4.15 percent share, adding 22.06 million hectares are cultivated including 1.62 million hectares in KP and 35.80 uncultivated area including 4.55 million hectare in KP besides 4.55 hectares are under forests including 1.18 million hectares in Khyber Pakthunkhwa.
As many as 25,492 tons wheat including 1,155 tons in KP were produced during 2017-18 besides rice 7,422 tons including 104 in KP, sugarcane 811.02 tons including 5080 in KP and maize 5702 including 866ton in KP during the said period.
The official said promotion of agriculture is a cornerstone of KP Government’s policy and Rs 8.22 billion would be spent on 133 mega agriculture and livestock projects during current fiscal years.
Special attention is being made on development 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. KP Government is spending huge financial resources on purchase of agriculture 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 KP 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.
