Lahore:: Provincial Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Syed Ashiq Hussain Kirmani Wednesday chaired a meeting at Agriculture House in which promotion of hydroponic kitchen gardening in Punjab was discussed.Agriculture University Rawalpindi Vice Chancellor Professor Rai Niaz Ahmed, while giving a brief to the provincial minister, said that hydroponics was a method of growing good quality vegetables without land. "It does not require insecticides or pesticides, and we can grow more vegetables by adopting the model," the meeting was told.The minister said promotion of kitchen gardening was an important need of the time and the Punjab government was trying to continue the project. The government desired to ensure supply of fresh and cheap vegetables to people in the off-season. It was very important to promote kitchen gardening in cities. It will also prove to be a good business while in the off-season people would be able to get quality tomatoes and onions at cheap prices, he added.People who have a garden in their home could grow vegetables there, while those having no garden would be able to cultivate vegetables on their roofs, the minister added. He ordered for assessing the minimum cost of the project structure. He stressed the need to come up with a workable plan through which the government would encourage people to take up kitchen gardening and also provide financial support. The minister also ordered to conduct a comprehensive campaign to guide and make people aware of the programme in big cities. He issued orders to Agriculture Extension of Agriculture Department to start the training programme for achieving the purpose. He underlined the need to provide quality vegetable seeds and fertiliser to the people.Secretary Agriculture, Punjab Iftikhar Ali Sahoo said that the government should initially focus on trial and expenditure to promote kitchen gardening. To launch the technical programme in the first phase of Punjab there was a need to start the scheme on commercial in five big cities for w hich the government would provide financial support, in the second phase the scheme would be started at the level of government institutions/organisations like LDA and PHA while in the third phase the scheme would be launched at house-hold level for the promotion of the programme.Special Secretary Agriculture Punjab Sheshanshah Faisal Azeem, Director General Agriculture Extension Chaudhry Abdul Hameed, Consultant Agriculture Department Dr Muhammad Anjum Ali, Director General Agricultural Information, Punjab Naveed Asmat Kahloon, Director General Agriculture Water Management, Punjab Malik Muhammad Akram, DG Agriculture Field Engineer Sohail Ahmed and other senior officers participated.