Punjab Agriculture Secretary Ahmad Aziz Tarar has directed the relevant authorities to utilise all resources for ensuring wheat cultivation on 16.5 million acres of land in Punjab during the ongoing month.
He presided over an online meeting of directors and deputy directors of the Agriculture Extension Wing on Thursday. Meeting also reviewed the wheat cultivation situation.
The meeting was told that 64 per cent wheat cultivation in rain-fed areas had been completed and the process of wheat cultivation in irrigated areas was in progress.
The secretary said there was need to accelerate the process of wheat cultivation in paddy areas so that timely cultivation of wheat could be completed on maximum area in Punjab. He said that the field staff of the Agriculture Extension should perform their duties to ensure timely cultivation of wheat and also guide farmers in every possible way.
The agriculture secretary said that farmers in flood-affected areas were being provided free seeds of selected varieties of wheat, while in other areas, 0.9 million bags of certified seeds of selected varieties were being provided at Rs 1,200 per bag besides provision of subsidy on herbicides.
Apart from this, the support price of wheat had been increased to Rs 3,000 per 40 kg before the sowing of wheat so that the cultivation of wheat could be made profitable for the farmers, he added.
The secretary said that wheat production competitions should be organised at provincial, division and tehsil levels this year to encourage farmers for wheat cultivation.
Punjab Task Force Additional Secretary Muhammad Shabbir Ahmad Khan, Agriculture Extension DG Dr Anjum Ali, Crop Reporting DG Abdul Qayyum, Agriculture Information Director Muhammad Rafiq Akhtar participated in the meeting while all directors and deputy directors of Agriculture Extension participated online.
