PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government has decided to convert Agriculture Research Institutes (ARIs) at Tarnab, Peshawar and Mingora Swat into ‘Centers of Excellence’ to bolster agriculture research and crops production.
According to official sources in Agriculture and Livestock Department of KP an amount of Rs1,000 million would be spent on up-gradation and conversion of these institutes into centre of excellence.
Officials said an act has been cleared from provincial cabinet on January 5, 2022 and a bill was submitted to KP Assembly to convert these research institutions into centre of excellence.
These institutions would be run through a Board of Governors with a CEO and existing employees to be either adjusted elsewhere or send to surplus pool besides a market based pay structure and hiring through open competition would be given to professionals.
Under the Agriculture Transformation Plan, a seed industry was being established with an estimated cost of Rs1 billion and procurement was in progress. To provide better services to farmers, official said tele-farming and digital services platform project worth Rs2320.483 million has been launched and about 100,000 Kisan Cards were issued besides disbursement of Rs475 million.
Kisan Card is a major initiative of the Government and two lakh farmers would be provided Kisan Cards in the first phase.
The database of farmers are being enhanced for provision of targeted subsidies to farmers on agriculture machinery while in the second phase interest free and low markup easy loans would be provided to farmers and agriculture growers. Work on ICT based improved extension services model and enhancement in agricultural extension services in merged areas worth Rs3 billion and soil fertility mapping of KP worth Rs603.828 million has already been launched.
Likewise, Rs2,670 million would be spent on genetic improvement of indigenous cattle through cross breeding and funds were released for successful completion of the scheme.
A new Agriculture University has been constructed in Malakand division while a state-of-the-art veterinary and animal sciences university is being constructed in Swat.
The first ever Agriculture and Livestock Policies 2018 and Food Policy 2021 were passed while livestock census was held last year in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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