LAHORE - Agricultural Engineering Lahore Additional Director General Zahid Mushtaq Mir said on Monday that Punjab agriculture sector had long been a pillar of country’s economy and food security.
He said this while addressing ‘International Workshop on Benchmarking Agri Mechanization Models to Enhance Agriculture Productivity’ at a local hotel. He said, “Punjab agriculture sector contributes 24 percent in GDP.”
“Our farmers were dedicated, resilient and they face challenges like labour shortage, rising costs, environmental concerns and constant pressure to produce more efficiently”, he said and added that mechanization, adoption of advance machinery and technology had become vital parts to address these issues.
Zahid Mushtaq Mir said, “Choosing right machinery that truly suits our needs is essential to achieve desired results.”
He further said that in Punjab our journey in agriculture mechanization has both challenges and achievements.
Additional Director General said that basic requirement of mechanization was land and Punjab agriculture department had converted 1.7 million acres of waste land into arable land.
He said, “Our research wing had developed 150 number of agriculture machines and implements out of which 60 have been commercialized.”
Zahid Mir said that with the support of incumbent government significant progress had been witnessed.
He said that one of our key initiative was the promotion of agriculture mechanization to increase crop productivity which had played a crucial role.
He said that through this initiative, 56 types of agriculture machines and implements were being provided to farmers and almost 5000 growers had benefited from this.
Additional Director General said that this programme had helped to improve productivity, reduce cost and enabled farmers to adopt modern farming techniques. To address the issue of climate change, 5000 super seeders were being distributed among farmers to encourage eco-friendly farming practices besides mitigating smog. He said that green tractor scheme and establishment of agri malls across Punjab were also steps to facilitate small scale farmers.
He said these initiatives would help them to use modern machinery on normal rent basis. By promoting effective benchmarking productivity could be enhanced, sustainability could be improved and ensure better future for agriculture, he maintained.
He expressed his gratitude to Asian Productivity Organization (APO), Tokyo Japan and National Productivity Organization (NPO) teams for their hard work and organizing this workshop. NPO Chief Executive Officer Muhammad Alamgir Chaudhry thanked the chief guest and APO Programme officer for their presence and time. He welcomed all the participants and resource persons.
He said that vision of Ministry of Industry and Production was to “To Achieve Efficient, Sustainable and Inclusive Industrial Development.” He said with an estimated 48 million hectares of arable land, there exists a size able potential for improving efficiencies, yield and productivity of the agriculture sector with better farm equipment and machinery.
The government of Pakistan was committed to support this sector, with the hope that the country could increase yields and exports of primary crops, fruits and vegetables, poultry and dairy products and in doing so become an important supplier for the region, he said.
He said to achieve this objective, the government was encouraging increasing private-sector interventions, investment by offering several direct and indirect assistance programmes. Asian Productivity Organization, Tokyo, Japan Programme Officer Keiichi Sugita expressed his sincere gratitude to the government of Pakistan for their sincere efforts to continue productivity movement. He also appreciated the efforts of APO Country Director for his strong leadership and support and NPO head for the keen interest. He also mentioned the APO & NPO team for their efforts for Productivity enhancement in the region.
Keiichi apprised the participants about the APO’s journey of success stories and major achievements in the region.