Staff Reporter
Peshawar
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government has decided to make legislation to prevent agriculture lands from unlawful housing societies in the province. Officials in KP Agriculture and Livestock Department told on Sunday that all housing societies would be required to take NOCs from Government before launching their projects on agricultural lands. The officials said preference would be given to housing projects on unproductive and infertile lands to reduce pressure on agriculture lands.
The conversion of agriculture and cultivable lands into housing societies was a big challenge and a principal decision has been taken to make necessary legislation for protection of agriculture lands from unlawful housing societies in the province. ‘Out of 20.646 million acres land of Khyber Pakthunkhwa, around 4.627 million acres are under- cultivation while 16.18 million is uncultivable’,the officials said. KP Government has planned to construct 32,000 watercourses costing Rs13 billion during next four years to provide uninterrupted power supply to tail end farmers and stop wastage of water in the province.
To bring this vast unproductive land under agriculture net, PC-1 of 15 new projects were prepared for 2019-20 under which 14 projects including 11 PSDP projects worth Rs 44 billion approved and funds for 14 projects were released by the Government. These projects would mainly focus on improvement in watercourses, protection of water resources in rainy areas, construction of small and medium dams, production of wheat, rice, oil besides fattening of calves of buffaloes, cows and strengthening of agriculture and livestock services.
The Federal and KP Governments have joined hands to promote agriculture, fisheries and livestock services in merged areas to alleviate poverty and generate employment opportunities for tribal people. To achieve these objectives, seven agriculture and livestock projects worth Rs 4.20 million focusing on increasing of meat and milk production, water conservation, livestock and dairy services have been approved for merged areas.
