LAHORE: Punjab Agriculture Secretary Wasif Khurshid has emphasised that improvement in efficiency of irrigation pumps will help conserve energy and curb pumping costs, thereby lowering the overall cost of agricultural production.
“Agriculture is a unique sector of Pakistan’s economy and it also happens to be one of the major consumers of commercial energy,” he said, according to a statement issued on Saturday.
“At present, irrigation pumps and farm tractors consume the bulk of energy. It is very important that all segments of our economy, including agriculture, make efficient use of available energy resources,” he said. “Punjab government has started a survey to analyse how to conserve energy.”
In the province, energy is being supplied to tube wells in order to reduce wastage of crops. There are more than one million tube wells in the province, including 100,000 that run on electricity.
Keeping in view the requirement of different crops, the available canal water supply is very low. In addition to this, tube wells and rains are other sources to meet water needs.
Water resources are short by about 30% for sowing crops despite the available irrigation resources namely the canal system, rainfall and tube wells.
The secretary said agricultural engineers had been given the task of energy audit under which assistant engineers would inspect tube wells in every district in order to reduce energy wastage.
“Owing to modern technical instruments, tube well inspection and expertise of engineers, the loss has been minimised,” he said.