Ploughing on in Punjab
How successful will the state's crop deversification scheme be?
How successful will the state's crop deversification scheme be?
Punjab wants crop mowing boars and blue bulls dead
The President of Sindh Abadgar Board, Abdul Majeed Nizamani, has stressed the need for carrying out comprehensive research on agriculture and irrigation water with the objective to enhance yield per acre in the country. The neighbouring country, India, is spending 1.3 percent of GDP on water research and three percent on agriculture research, but in Pakistan only 0.3 percent of total GDP has been allocated for the purpose, he said while talking to Business Recorder here on Friday. He said there was need for comprehensive research to find out the causes of shortage of water so that in the light of these findings concrete measures could be adopted to overcome the longstanding problem of acute shortage of water every year for Rabi and Kharif crops. In the absence of any study for the release of water towards downstream of the river, the sea intrusion rendered millions of acres of agricultural land uncultivated, he said, and underlined the need for a detailed study in this respect. About the shortage of irrigation water, Nizamani claimed that 72 percent shortage of water in Sindh adversely affected the Rabi crops of the season and if such shortage of water continued, it could also affect the Kharif crops. Though Sindh Irrigation Department has admitted shortage of 48 percent of water. However, the factual position is that the province had suffered 72 percent shortage this season, he added. Copyright Business Recorder, 2008
Even as the Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh, especially the BJP and the Samajwadi Party (SP) continue to rally against Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati's pet project, the Ganga Expressway, the state government remains unmoved in its bid to go ahead with the project. The Opposition's scathing attack on the BSP government for allegedly giving undue benefits to the contractor of the project, JP Industries, at the cost of the farmers, as well as rendering thousands of hectares of fertile land into concrete waste are being seen by the government as a ":absolutely baseless and superfluous':. An official in the industries department said, according to the concept paper prepared by the irrigation department and an estimation of state public works department, embankments to be built along the proposed Ganga Expressway will save around 3.40-lakh hectare land from floods. ":It is expected that this 3.40-lakh hectare of land, which is single crop yielding due to floods at present, will be converted to multi-crop fertile land after the completion of the expressway and embankments. Hence, thousands of farmers will be able to reap benefits of at least double crop,': the official said. The proposed 1,047-km, access-controlled, 8-lane expresway from Ballia to Greater Noida is to be 155 metre wide, including the width of the embankments and service roads. According to the government records, the proposed land-parcels to be given to developer for development, which is around 12,281 hectare, largely includes infertile and barren land.
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