SIALKOT (March 25 2004): The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)-assisted "crop maximisation project" has been initiated in 109 villages of Sindh, NEWFP, Balochistan, Punjab and Azad Kashmir.

Official sources told Business Recorder here on Wednesday that the project would be completed in 2005 at a cost of Rs 500 million.

The main objectives of the project are to supplement the country's on-going efforts to increase food product through crop productivity, ensure food security and alleviate poverty in rural areas through improving income of small farmers and build a mechanism for sustaining productivity enhancement and food security programme.

The project is being carried out in 49 villages of Punjab, 288 of Sindh, 13 of NEWFP, 14 o Balochistan and five villages of Azad Kashmir.

According to the sources, the project is being carried out in Sialkot, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Sahiwal, Rahimyar Khan and Muzaffargarh districts of Punjab; Hyderabad, Nawabshah, Sanghar and Larkana districts in Sindh; Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan districts in NWFP; Nasirabad and Loralai districts in Balochistan; and one district in Azad Kashmir.

The sources said special attention had been focused on increasing productivity for improving food security and meet rapidly the growing food demands as well as to reduce seasonal and year-to-year variability in production on economically and environmentally sustainable basis.

Three main crops like wheat, rice and cotton would be covered, while small crops like pulses, oilseeds, maize and fodder were also included in the project for providing assistance to the farmers, said the sources.

Courtesy Business Recorder