By Our Correspondent
LAHORE: An important meeting was held today at Agriculture House Lahore under the chairmanship of Provincial Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Syed Ashiq Hussain Kirmani in which a detailed review of the Chief Minister’s ongoing projects for the development of the agricultural sector, their progress and future projects was taken up.
Secretary Agriculture Punjab Iftikhar Ali Sahoo was also present on the occasion.
Read also: Punjab Minister for Minorities meets delegation to advance human rights collaboration
The Provincial Minister for Agriculture and Livestock stated that due to the successful initiatives/projects of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif in the agricultural sector, the economic conditions of farmers have improved and they have become self-sufficient.
The new financial year 2025-26 will guarantee further development and prosperity for farmers. He said that out of the 36 billion used amount of Kissan Card Phase One, 35 billion rupees have been recovered. The recovery of Phase One is almost complete. 3 lakh and 37 thousand new applications have been received for Kissan Card Phase Two, out of which 150 thousand new farmers will be eligible. Kissan Card is a very significant and huge program and he directed to further increase the number of Kissan Card holders.
He stressed that there is a need to run a full awareness campaign for farmers to become Kissan Card holders. In this regard, road shows and interviews with farmers who have returned loans in time should be conducted.
The Provincial Minister for Agriculture explained that the second phase of Kissan Card was launched on May 15. Under the Kissan Card, farmers will be provided with interest-free agricultural loans for Kharif, for which an amount of Rs 75 billion has been allocated.
On this occasion, the provincial minister highlighted that the farmers of the second phase of the Kissan Card will also be able to purchase diesel with 30 percent cash and 25 percent money. On this occasion, the Punjab Agriculture Minister further endorsed that out of the approved amount of Rs 14 billion of the Wheat Support Program, Rs 11 billion has been distributed among the farmers. The provincial minister for Agriculture Punjab further said that under the Chief Minister Punjab Green Tractor Program, 9,350 green tractors have been delivered so far to the successful farmers in the first phase of 9,500 balloting.
During the second phase of this program, 10,000 locally manufactured tractors of 50 horsepower to 65 horsepower will be provided to the farmers at a subsidy of Rs 500,000, while 10,000 local and imported tractors of 75 horsepower and above will be provided at a subsidy of Rs 1 million.
The Provincial Minister for Agriculture further expressed that the construction work of model agricultural malls in Sahiwal, Multan, Bahawalpur and Sargodha while complete construction work of Multan and Sahiwal has been completed.He explained that 10 more model agricultural malls will be built in Punjab during the second phase. While 2,000 more agricultural graduates will be recruited during the second phase of the agricultural graduates internship program.
These graduates will be posted in all sub-departments of the Punjab Agriculture Department. The first and second phases of provision of super seeders under the Chief Minister Punjab Smog Control Program have been completed. A total of 5,000 super seeders will be provided to the farmers before the paddy harvesting in September this year. Priority will be given to the motorway rural areas for the provision of the remaining 2,000 super seeders. Under the Chief Minister Punjab Wheat Incentive Program, 710 out of 1,000 tractors have been prepared and 45 tractors have been delivered.
Ashiq Hussain Kirmani further endorsed that in the next financial year 2025-26, under the High-Tech Financing Program, 11 types of modern machinery and equipment will be provided to farmers on subsidy in the next financial year. Under this program, 1,000 machinery and equipment will be provided to farmers.
A huge amount of Rs 30 billion will be allocated for this program, under which interest-free loans of up to Rs 5 crore will be provided to service providers/farmers for the purchase of agricultural machinery. This loan will be repaid by the service providers/farmers within a period of 5 years. The Chief Minister’s initiatives/projects in the next year 2025-26 include the Program for Water Efficient Agriculture, Transformation of Agriculture in Pothohar.
Special Secretary Agriculture Agha Nabil Akhtar, Additional Secretary Agriculture (Planning) Captain (retd) Waqas Rashid, Director Generals Agriculture Chaudhry Abdul Hameed, Naveed Ismat Kahlon, Engineer Sajid Hassan, Rana Tajammal and other officers were also present in the meeting.
