CM of Punjab, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, has started the Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Kisan Card project to help farmers. She said that 500,000 small farmers will be able to get loans of 150 billion rupees through this card while she was in charge of an agriculture reform meeting in Lahore today.
She also said that thirty thousand rupees per acre would be given to buy the best seeds, fertilizers, and herbicides.
The meeting also agreed to build a cutting-edge center of excellence for development and research on cotton, wheat, and rice crops.
Over the meeting, it was agreed upon that the center’s business would be run by a board and that the study center would be linked to universities in the area.
For the second day in a row, the chief minister led an exclusive conference with farm department officials to talk about making Punjab greener. At the meeting, ideas for changing the Punjab Seed Corporation and the Punjab Farm Research Board were shared. It was also talked about how to make it illegal to live on farmland.
CM Maryam Nawaz accepted the “Nawaz Sharif Kisan Card” during the meeting. This will allow small farmers to easily get a Rs500,000 loan. Per acre, loans for farming and different kinds of assistance will also be given for things like seeds, fertilizer, and medicines.
Along with this, it was agreed that the Pakistan-China R&D Centre would help build a research and development center at the Agriculture University of Faisalabad for $2 billion. There will be a genome center, a germplasm resource, speed breeding, and a study on climate change at the R&D center.
During the meeting, the government also planned to give the Agricultural Extension Wing new technology and hire 500 agriculture grads. Over the next two years, 24,800 pieces of the newest farming equipment will be given to farmers for Rs 7 billion.
With help from the business sector, the chief minister said, model agriculture centers will be built all over Punjab. These centers will have seeds, modern farming equipment, agricultural drugs, and demonstration plots.
