Two bills 'The Punjab Strategic Co-ordination (Amendment) Bill 2014 and 'The Punjab Local Government (Third Amendment) Bill 2014 were tabled in Punjab Assembly session here on Wednesday. Agriculture Minister Dr Farukh Javed replying to queries on agriculture stated that production of wheat and cotton was on rise in Punjab. He said 11 varieties of wheat and 10 varieties of cotton had been introduced in the province.
The minister said 43,720 out of 58,000 water courses in Punjab had been brick lined. He said that under Supply China project markets of citrus(Sargodha) and Mango(Multan) would be made. Replying to a question, the minister said under alternative energy policy 1,00,000 tube wells would be converted to bio-gas.
He said that citrus remained a big foreign exchange earning commodity and was being exported to Russia, Iran, Indonesia and Malaysia. Dr Farukh Javed said Rs 227 million project to eradicate fruit fly was being undertaken in the province. He said the government has planned to shift vegetable and fruit markets out of the limits of cities. In re-ply to a query, he said there were 50,000 water logged acres and 2.1 million acres of saline in Punjab. He said that bio saline-11 project of the Punjab government and UNDP got completed in 2007-2011 He said the Punjab government gave 265 tractors to farmers under Green Tractor Scheme in 2012.
The house was later adjourned for Friday by the chair.