Steering Committee Meeting Reviewed 6 Projects of Agriculture Sector

A meeting of the Steering Committee on six different ongoing projects in the field of agriculture in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was held under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shakeel Qadir Khan. The meeting reviewed the progress on the projects. Additional Secretary, Chief Agriculture P&D, Project Directors and representatives of Agriculture Department attended.
Detailed progress on water storage in rainfed areas, command area development of small dams, plans to increase rice cultivation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, National Program for Improvement of Water Courses, increase in oil seed production and poverty alleviation through poultry were reviewed.
So far, 1282 schemes of agricultural engineering and soil water conservation have been completed under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa rainwater harvesting project.
These projects include water ponds, check dams, water reservoirs, rehabilitation of springs, tracing, micro watersheds, conversion of tube wells to solar energy.
The meeting was informed that under NPIWC program, 158 water storage tanks, 216 water courses have been rehabilitated in the province this year and 410 farmers have been trained.
Under the plan to increase rice production in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, work has been done on 50 rice growing units in the year 2020-21. Under the project, 20 units of new technology such as use of modern technology, agronomics trails, DSR and AWDI have been introduced.
A plan to increase production of oilseeds in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is also underway. Under which work is underway on projects related to sunflower, canola, sesame seeds under which canola has been cultivated on 2500 acres in the year 2020-21.
Under the plan to create a command area for small dams in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, construction of 8 water courses and alignment of 22 water courses have been done this year.
Briefing on the Poultry Poverty Alleviation Program in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, it was informed that 22,204 units have been distributed till January 2021 this year while a total of 57,937 units have been distributed among deserving families since 2019.