Minister for Agriculture Muhammad Ismail Rahu on Wednesday informed that the provincial government has decided to establish 50 Natural Enemies Field Reservoirs (NEFRs) in different parts of the province in order to develop friendly agriculture insects which could be helpful to protect crops from harmful insects attack.
The minister said this while inaugurating NEFR centre at Syed Manzoor Hussain Shah Jilani Farm here near Sultanabad.
He said the pesticides which were using by the growers for protection of their crops against harmful insects were causing health issues for the people.
Out of one millions ranges of insects, only one percent were dangerous for crops and their attack could be controlled through agriculture friendly insects, he said and added that objective of the provincial government to establish NEFR centre was to ensure grow safe crops without use of pesticides.
He informed that Sindh Agriculture Department had also launched Sindh Irrigated Agriculture Productivity Enhancement Project (SIAPEP) with objective to line the watercourses and preserve available water.
The completion of this project would help in saving water, he said and added that lining of 5500 watercourses has been planned of which 4232 have been completed in various parts of the province.
The lining of remaining watercourse will be completed by December 2021, he informed.
He said that the provincial government also introducing drip irrigation system to grow maximum crops with minimum use of water.
The government was also providing solar energy tube wells to growers so that they could save the energy cost, he added.
The provincial government was introducing land leveling, another component of SIAPEP so that the growers could be face inconvenience while cultivating their crops, the minister informed and added that efforts were also being made to introduce kitchen garden, the third component of SIAPEP.
Under this project, kitchen gardens had so far been set up in 19 districts of the province including Malir, he said and added that objective of setting up the kitchen garden was to provide job opportunity to female growers of the province.
