An amount of Rs410.87 million will be spent on the project to enhance vegetables production while another Rs148 million for pulses, assistant director agriculture information Naveed Asmat Kahlon said in a meeting with progressive growers on Tuesday.
The project for vegetables production, besides others, would mainly focused on enhancing production of potato, garlic, tomato and chilli.
Kahlon said that vegetables and pulses are an important part of our daily menu and launch of the project to increase their production would not only help bring food security but would also cut our bill on import of these items.
The two projects would help, to some extent, meet the food requirements of the growing population, he added.
Kahlon said that the pulses project was launched because most of the growers consider pulses unimportant and usually select substandard land for their cultivation.
He said that production of pulses, considered to be a high nutritional value food after meat, can be enhanced by adopting modern technology, balanced application of fertilizers and removal of weeds.
He said that farmers would undergo training and media would be utilized to convey modern production technology to them.
He said that Chief Minister's Kitchen Gardening project was already being executed successfully and the two new projects would ensure higher production of quality vegetables and pulses suitable for human health and their growth, increase income of farmers and above all would contribute to strengthening the national economy.