Khyber Pakhtunkhwa allocates Rs 1.382 billion for agriculture sector

The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has allocated an amount of Rs 1.382 billion for 102 projects in agricultural sector of the province with 60 ongoing and 42 new schemes. This has been stated in the white paper of the finance department for financial year 2011-12.
During the next financial year 2011-12 the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will establish 560 acres fruit orchard, lay out 640 demonstration plots regular season vegetables and 500 D-Plots of off-season season vegetables during financial year 2011-12.
The department of agriculture will also distribute 56000 fruit plants and lay out 378 wheat demonstration plots. Other targets for the upcoming financial year is the lying of 213 maize demonstration plots. Procurement of 6500 metric tons certified wheat seed, 480 metric tonne procurement of maize seed, development of 145 soil conservation structures and installation of 200 dug-wells.
Khyber Paktunkhwa has an agrarian economy and more than 80 % of the rural population depends for their survival on agriculture, out of which 70 % are directly or indirectly engaged in agriculture, can easily attain the status of big industry in the province. The province is short in food commodities, hardly producing 40% of local requirements and meets the balance requirements from Punjab etc.
Although the department has under taken a number of special new initiatives in the last four years under the ADP OSDP programmes for accelerating agriculture development, the one new and most significant initiative under the present regime included in ADP 2011-12, is procurement of 40 bulldozers and three power winches for land reclamation and installation of Dug-well respectively.
Several projects for livelihood backyard development for food security, value addition of fruits and vegetables, rehabilitation of flood disaster land with plantation of new orchards, poverty alleviation through improved rural poultry production and conservation of native livestock breeds would be initiated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The department procured 332 tonne seeds of gram, sown wheat and maize on 1771 acres public sector farms for production for certified seeds. Similarly, 2808 acres of land was levelled through lasers technology, 966 watercourses were improved and developed 137 soil conservation structure. The department during the outgoing financial year 2010-11 planted 350 date orchards, 1425 acres fruit orchards of different species and laid out 662 acres demonstration plots of wheat, maize and vegetables.
The agriculture department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the year installed 100 dug-wells, leveled 190-hectare land through tractor bulldozers, sprinkler drip irrigation system was installed on 5100 acres. It also constructed 22 water storage tanks, rehabilitated 100 watercourse, produced 400 tonne maize hybrid seed and laid out model olive orchards on 15 acres.