LAHORE, July 16: A Rs2 billion master plan is being developed to boost wheat production and 60,000 acre agricultural land will be distributed among agriculture graduates and poor farmers during the ongoing financial year, says a provincial minister.

Speaking at the Biotech Workshop and Exhibition at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) here on Wednesday, Punjab Agriculture Minister Ahmad Ali Olakh said per acre yield was in decline because the research in the agriculture sector was not benefiting farmers because of the communication gap. He said the share of the agriculture sector in the gross domestic product (GDP) had fallen from 38 per cent to 20 per cent and it was a matter of concern for the government.

Olakh said the government had decided to facilitate the agriculture sector. It would give 10,000 tractors to farmers owning less than 25 acres of land on subsidised rates. Such farmers would also be given agricultural inputs on subsidised prices. The government had a plan to spend Rs560 million on mechanised farming.

The minister said the government had decided to spend Rs1 billion on agriculture research and allocate Rs1.90 billion for livestock production. A chain of cold storages would be established at airports at a cost of Rs840 million to facilitate the export of perishable goods. Engagement of private sector would be ensured to run these projects. One hundred bulldozers would be imported for the Agriculture Department and 335 out-of-order bulldozers would be made serviceable. A taskforce on biogas was working on various biogas projects in different parts of the country.

LCCI President Mohammad Ali Mian said the government would have to take effective measures for the promotion of agriculture sector because the future was agrodollar, not petrodollar. Pakistan, despite being an agricultural country and having abundant resources, was not performing the way it should. Thailand was exporting halal meat worth $5 billion despite being a non-Muslim country, whereas Pakistan’s share in this business was negligible.

Mian said agriculture continued to be the single largest sector and main source of livelihood for 66 per cent of the Pakistani population. It accounted for 20.9 per cent of the GDP and employed 43.4 per cent of the total workforce, but it was facing many problems because per acre produce was lower than many countries and wheat produce was only 2.5 tons per hectare compared to 4.5 tons of India and 6.2 tons of Egypt. Pakistan’s sugarcane produce was 45.1 tons per hectare compared to 65.2 tons of India and 90.9 tons of Egypt and potato produce was 17.2 tons per hectare compared to 20 tons of India and 23.8 of Egypt. Pakistan loses about 40 per cent of its yield in post-harvest process because of a lack of preservation.

The LCCI chief said Pakistan was the fifth largest producer of milk in the world, but it was preserving a little quantity because of a lack of biotechnology and cool chain systems. The use of biotechnology could not only considerably enhance productivity, but also check post-harvest losses. Pakistan was using biotechnology in flower tissue culture and therefore exporting a variety of flowers and also developing genetically improved varieties of livestock.