FAISALABAD:Director General Agriculture (Extension & Adoptive Research) Punjab, Dr Anjum Ali said on Thursday that 16.5 million acres of land would be brought under wheat crop cultivation across the Punjab province this year for getting 22.2 million metric tons of production.
Addressing a Kissan convention, jointly organised by the Agriculture Department and a private fertilizer company here, he said the wheat growers should complete cultivation over maximum land by Nov 20 to enhance average per acre production from 31 to 40 maunds. He said that the wheat support price had been increased over Rs 3,000 per maund to make it a cash crop and attract farmers to cultivate it on maximum area of land.
He urged farmers to speed up cultivation of wheat crop in paddy areas to bring more and more land under wheat crop cultivation. He said that the Agriculture field staff, along with students of Agriculture University, were busy providing guidance to farmers to convince them for early completion of the crop sowing process.
Director Agriculture (Extension) Faisalabad Division Chaudhry Abdul Hameed said that wheat growers were being provided subsidy of Rs 12.5 billion. Director Wheat Dr Javed Ahmed said that the Punjab government had ensured provision of 9-million seed bags of 15 new varieties to farmers. He urged farmers to purchase only those seed gabs tagged with blue colour and supplied by the federal seed certification department.
Kissan leader Rehanul Haq hailed the government decision for providing a subsidy of Rs 17 billion on phosphorus fertilizers, which ensured availability of DAP fertilizer at the rate of Rs 10,500 per bag in open market.