Federal Minister for National Food Security & Research Sahibzada Muhammad Mehboob Sultan launched the project: National Program for Improvement of Water Courses, GB component under PM’s Agriculture Emergency Program. In the inauguration ceremony Governor; Chief Minister GB, Provincial Minister & Secretary for Fisheries and Livestock, Chief Secretary GB and Jahangir Khan Tareen participated. The incumbent government right at the start gave agriculture a great importance and PM’s Agriculture Emergency Program was initiated to dramatically change the traditional outlook of agriculture and to bring it in line with the modern demands by infusion of capital (PKR286bn); expertise and technology. Almost all the agro fields were taken into account for the subject development. There are 13 projects in which all the provincial governments and departments are stakeholders and the subject projects were designed and would subsequently be executed in collaboration. It is pertinent to mention that two of the projects are already launched earlier this month. Federal minister said that the occasion of inaugurating backyard poultry and Conserving Water through Lining of Watercourses projects here in GB is a great relief. All these projects are basically linked with food self-sufficiency and zero hunger as it was stressed by the Prime Minister in his maiden speech to the nation as PM, he also expressed his concern for the food and nutrients deficiencies and resultant diseases and mortality rate. The backyard poultry will equip the households with moderate means with enough resources to fulfill their protein deficiencies and also attain financial self-sufficiency. On Backyard poultry (PKR 0.33 Bn – Federal share PKR 0.07 Bn) will be spent; under this leg of our journey we are inaugurating the disbursement of 0.15 million vaccinated chickens; these small projects have great impact on the economy as these are time tested in various countries across the globe. Mehboob Sultan said that this project will empower our womenfolk, for this will take limited capital and space with bright chances to bring more profit. The leftover food could become a good chicken feed and with organic food the nutritional value of eggs and meat would be highly beneficial for health with less cholesterol. On the conservation of water, the Federal Minister said that PKR 200 billion & Federal share is PKR 62.07 billion (3 projects) are attributed. The importance of water cannot be denied for agriculture and lot of water is wasted for there has never been a sound water conservation strategy especially in face of increasing population. In face of such challenges our government has devised a strategy which will dramatically stop the wastage of water thus saved would better be utilized to meet the increasing water demand. For that purpose 154 billion are attributed for lining of watercourses. In this respect in GB with PKR 4 billion will be spent on the lining of 3,325 water courses. Federal Secretary said that the projects are conceived with thorough deliberations from the concerned from federal and provincial departments. Hashim Popalzai also said the progress of work on these projects will be monitored by Federal Ministry in collaboration with provincial departments under the supervision of PM and Federal Minister NFS&R. Federal Minister also assured his unwavering support for the success of these projects and thoroughly appreciated the interest of local population and departments. ******************
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