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LAHORE, Jul 10 (APP):Punjab Agriculture Minister Ashiq Hussain Kirmani has said that the purpose of holding workshop on Thursday was to engage agricultural stakeholders to assess the current status of the sector and to formulate a roadmap for its bright future.
A workshop on the theme “Current Agricultural Scenario and Strategy for 2025-26” was jointly organized by the Punjab Agriculture Department, Food Security & Agriculture Center of Excellence (FACE) and the Pakistan Agricultural Coalition (PAC) at a local hotel on Thursday.
The minister hoped that this session would contribute meaningful proposals for the development of agriculture in the fiscal year 2025-26. He said the key objectives include boosting agricultural productivity and profitability and ensuring their sustainability.
He said that the Punjab government was committed to ensure fair prices for farmers’ produce.
Under the leadership of the Punjab chief minister, the Punjab government’s top priority was to align the agriculture sector with modern standards through the “Transforming Agriculture Punjab” programme.
An interest-free loan scheme of Rs 30 billion had been introduced to promote mechanization, he added.
He further said that ten new Agri-Malls would be constructed next year to provide machinery on rental basis, and 98% construction work had already been completed on four ongoing Agri-Malls.
He further highlighted the chief minister’s special focus on providing farmers with modern irrigation systems, quality seeds resilient to climate change, and improved research.
Under the first phase of the kisan card programme , loans worth Rs 57 billion had been issued to 525,000 farmers, 98% farmers had repaid loan on time.
The minister also said that the government was linking research institutions and universities and believed in supporting the private sector for better facilities in agriculture.
He emphasized the importance of establishing virtual and electronic markets for agri-commodity marketing.
Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Usama Khan Leghari said that reducing crop production costs and increasing per-acre yield was critical.
He said input costs had decreased by 70% through the Kisan Card programme. He stressed the need to focus all efforts on agricultural research.
Punjab Agriculture Secretary Iftikhar Ali Sahoo said, “Punjab contributes 70% to Pakistan’s agriculture and is now taking practical steps to transform the sector.”
He emphasized the importance of promoting corporate and cluster farming. He added that climate change poses significant challenges to agriculture, for which the “Green Pakistan Initiative” was a commendable response by the federal government.
Green Corporate Initiative Pakistan DG Major General Shahid Nazir said that to realize the dream of agricultural transformation, the government must address price instability for farmers’ produce.
He stressed the need to educate farmers to increase the area under cultivation and advocated for leveraging modern technology, data collection and agricultural experts to promote farm mechanization.
In the workshop, stakeholders and private sector representatives held in-depth discussions in the first session on improving farm input availability and farm economics.
The second session focused on increasing per-acre yield, managing crop diversification, mitigating the impacts of climate change, restoring soil health, and ensuring adequate water availability.
Bank of Punjab President Zafar Masood, Vice Chancellors of agricultural universities, Shehzad Malik from Guard Filters, stakeholders in agricultural production and representatives of private companies were present.
A large number of participants also joined the consultative session online.