KARACHI, July 5: The provincial ministry of agriculture is to spend Rs2,562.5 million on schemes for development of agriculture during this fiscal year. The amount is Rs838 million more than the sum allocated last fiscal year.

Additional Secretary Agriculture Mohammad Aslam told Dawn that the government was focusing on increasing per acre yield of wheat, rice, and sugarcane in view of the food security concerns expressed on the world level.

He said that the province was self-sufficient in meeting food needs of the people by producing enough wheat and rice. However, due to lack of sound marketing system and failure to check smuggling of commodities to India and Afghanistan it faced artificial shortage leading to price hike.He said that main focus of the schemes to be implemented would be on water management.

According to the breakup, Rs1360 million has been earmarked for schemes of water management, farm mechanisation Rs595 million, research for evolving new varieties Rs194.8 million.

The new development plan includes 17 new schemes and 23 on-going schemes.

Raising the income of the farmers, the ministry is setting up four new markets – two in Karachi, one in Hyderabad and one at Kunri, Mirpurkhas.

Plots have been allotted to growers and retailers to sell their produce brought to these markets.

A major project of the ministry is to establish an agriculture export processing zone at a cost of Rs144 million. Development of infrastructure at the zone is in advanced stages and the zone is expected to be commissioned by July 2009.

In water management sector, the ministry is helping farmers in installing tube-wells on subsidised rates to increase their water supply in case of water shortage.

Modern sprinkles are being provided to the growers, which is of great advantage in conserving water in the era of shortages.

Research schemes include evolvement of hybrid varieties of wheat, cotton, rice and sugarcane to help farmer increase their per acre yield. Research is also under way in developing anti-mealy bug virus in the laboratory to counter the attack of deadly virus on cotton crop.

Another major project is constructing cemented water courses to stop wastage of water and to ensure supply to the farm located on tail-end. The project is funded by the World Bank. As many as 25,000 water courses were cemented up till now.

Under the farm mechanization schemes, ministry provides bulldozers on subsidised rent to growers for leveling of land to bring more area under cultivation. More and more farmers are now using tractors to plough their fields and the Zarai Taraqqiati Bank is providing soft loans for purchase of tractors and other farm implements, such as tillers, huskers and thrashers.