VISION 2011

Following future programs are in the pipe-line to achieve the departmental objectives;

ESTABLISHMENT OF FARM MECHANIZATION RENTAL SERVICES
THROUGH PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP
About 80% of the farmers in the Punjab are small with land holdings up to 5 ha and owners of such farms are practicing subsistence farming under deficit as their yield of major crops is hardly 50% of the progressive farms. One of the major causes of low productivity is the use of inappropriate /inefficient mechanization. The productivity of these farmers can be increased if appropriate level of mechanization is adopted. Unfortunately, small farmers do not have the potential to own tractors along with essentially required set of machinery and equipment for the cropping system being practiced.
Although machinery rental services are available from the neighboring farmers but these are limited to land preparation, wheat / paddy harvesting and threshing. Further, farmers providing machinery and equipment on rental basis are not fully aware to use it efficiently. It is, therefore, necessary to develop capacity of farmers and service providers to operate farm machinery and equipment efficiently and economically.
This project has been developed with the objectives of providing farm mechanization rental services under private public sector partnership in the Punjab. Initially, the services shall be provided in selected 15 districts but will be extended to all areas during next 10 years. The proposed project shall help increase agriculture productivity almost by 50% compared with the present crop yields of the farmers. At the proposed centres, complete set of crop specific machinery and equipment including tractors will be made available by the private sector. The public sector will be responsible to provide technical inputs in terms of selection of appropriate machinery and equipment, their proper use, repair and maintenance for efficient and economical use to optimize their output at minimum cost of operation.

ESTABLISHMENT OF COMMON FACILITY CENTERS AND MATERIAL BANKS IN THE PUNJAB
There are about 500 agriculture machinery manufacturing units in the Punjab (mostly located at Daska, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan and R.Y.Khan) who are manufacturing different types of agriculture machinery and equipment. The cost of locally manufactured machinery is generally high but its quality is poor due to use of out-dated technology, non-availability of quality components and parts to be used for manufacturing of the machinery and equipment. The agriculture machinery and equipment of Pakistan shall face severe set back under WTO regime if its quality is not improved and prices are not competitive with other manufacturers in the world. There is a need for improving the quality of locally manufactured machinery and equipment through establishment of Common Facility Center (CFC) and material banks.
It is has been proposed that Common Facility Centers and Material Banks shall be established at Dask, Daska, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan and R.Y.Khan which shall help provide services for machining, sheet metal cutting, bending, forging, grinding, finishing, electro-plating, die-making, heat treatment, material testing and baked painting etc. while material banks shall supply quality components and parts for manufacturing of machinery and equipment to the manufacturer.

STRENGTHENING AND UP-GRADATION OF R & D FACILITIES AT AMRI MULTAN
Agricultural productivity of most of the crops in Pakistan is low due to several reasons including in-appropriate mechanization. Agricultural Mechanization Research Institute (AMRI), Multan was established in 1976-77 and is responsible to develop low-cost and appropriate farm mechanization technologies and their subsequent promotion for increased agricultural productivity in the province of Punjab. Over the last 25 years, the institute has developed over 100 low-cost agricultural machinery prototypes and technologies to increase the agricultural productivity of crops out of which about 30 have been commercialized and adopted by the farming community.
During the last few years, several potential R&D projects have been identified, but due to lack of proper funding, no headway could be made. For this purpose, the Field Wing of Agriculture Department has developed a project proposal to upgrade and strengthen the R&D facilities at AMRI Multan, by acquiring necessary machinery and equipment. It is expected that provision of the proposed machinery and equipment will help promote farm mechanization in the province. The overall objectives of the project are to establish new R&D labs. and also upgrade/strengthen existing infrastructure of AMRI.

PROVISION OF QUALITY MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT TO SMALL FARMERS ON COST SHARING BASIS
About 80% of the farms are small and constitute 41% of the total cultivated area in the Punjab. The productivity of these farms can be increased if modern mechanized farm operations are adopted. Unfortunately, small farmers do not have the potential to purchase costly machinery and equipment for mechanizing specialized farms operations which are essentially required to increase the farm productivity. They need financial incentives to purchase costly machinery and equipment.
This project has been proposed to provide specialized costly machinery and equipment to 500 small farmers owning land below 5 ha on cost sharing basis (80:20) i.e. 80% cost of the machinery and equipment shall be born by the Government while farmers shall pay only 20% of the cost. This will help promote farm mechanization thereby increasing farm productivity in the country.

PROVISION OF ON-FARM STORAGE FACILITIES TO SMALL FARMERS IN THE PUNJAB
Every year about 16 million tons of wheat is produced in the Punjab of which upto 10% is wasted during harvest, threshing and transportation in field. Farmers sell off wheat to local business men and store a part of it for their consumption in traditional storages which are made of katcha bricks/ mud or leave the grains in open air till it is disposed off. Primarily they do not have steel silos essentially required for storing wheat and other food-grains at farms. Consequently they suffer from loss of produce to the extent of 30% due to fungus attack, animal and rodents etc interferences. This loss can be eliminated by providing steel silos to the farmers.
This project has been proposed to provide 50000 steel silos (25000 of 10 ton and 25000 of 25 ton capacity) to the farmers on cost sharing basis.

LAND AND WATER RESOURCES CONSERVATION IN BARANI ZONE
There are 18.6 million acres barani (rain fed) out of which 7.9 million acres are cultivated, 9.9 million acres constitute livestock ranges and 0.8 million acres is under forest. The only source of water in the barani tract is rainfall which varies between 300 mm and 1000 mm with total runoff 9.00 million acre feet (MAF). About 30% of precipitation is lost which is sufficient to irrigate two million acres if properly harvested. The rainwater not only washes away the fertile top soil but also depletes the cultivated fields of their nutrients. The un-controlled flow of run off water has converted large tract of table lands into gullies and made them unfit for cultivation. About 12000 acres of land are being affected every year due to soil erosion and gully formation by rain water.
During the recent drought spell (1997-2003) there was little rainfall and farmers especially in barani area started installing more tubewells. Consequently the ground water resource was exploited indiscriminately and water table lowered @ 2 to 12 ft. per annum resulting in intrusion of saline water into fresh layer as well as no / very low well yield. One the solution to the problem is efficient management of ground water as well as artificial re-charging of ground water aquifer through construction of delayed action mini dams with sinking sumps which would help increase recharge to ground water and raise the ground water level. The scope for such development works is quite large in the barani zone.
This project has been proposed to construct 500 delay action mini dams with total storage capacity of 12500 acre ft in addition to introduction of various soil conservation measures for reclamation of eroded lands.

INSTALLATION OF FRACTIONAL TUBEWELLS ON COST SHARING BASIS IN THE PUNJAB
Pakistan is facing water shortage since the occurrence of drought spell in 1996-97. On an average, 40% to 50% water is less received from Indus Basin River system to the Punjab, compared with water inflow before 1996-97. Resultantly, the farmers installed tubewells indiscriminately without following the expert guidance and population of tubewells which was 453000 in 1995-96 reached 611000 in 2003-04 (Punjab). Due to indiscriminate and continuous pumping of ground water many tubewells failed or their discharge declined resulting in increased operational costs. Intrusion of saline water into fresh water layer was also observed. One of reasons for tubewell failure is the use of poor quality tubewell components and installation of big size tubewells without expert guidance. The small farmers owing land upto 12.5 acres do not have financial resources to install good quality and costly tubewell components that would help prolong their life. Hence they need financial incentives for installation of tubewells.
This project has been proposed install 5000 fractional tubewells (each of 0.25-0.5 cusec) using quality components on cost sharing basis. Under the proposed project 80% costs shall be born by Government and 20% by farmers.

INTRODUCTION AND PROMOTION OF RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES
Pakistan is facing energy shortage problem today. Per capita consumption of commercial energy is around 0.18 TOE which is one of the lowest level in the world. In the Punjab about 45% of the villages and 90% of the farms have no grid connected electricity. The rural population is heavily dependent on non-commercial energy resources (e.g animal dung, wood, crop residues and kerosene oil) to meet their domestic energy demand. The cost of conventional energy (electricity and oil) is also increasing day by day and getting beyond the reach of an ordinary person.
The indigenous energy resources are poor and every year oil / POL products worth 3.096 billion US dollar are imported from abroad. Agriculture sector consumes only 2.60% of the commercial energy and main reasons for this low level of energy consumption are non mechanization of on-farm operations as well as non availability of electricity at farms. It has been estimated that if all the villages are supplied with grid connected electricity, energy requirements for increased population and expanded housing and industrial sectors are taken into account, Pakistan shall require about 400 MTOE of commercial energy in 2015-16 which cannot be supplied from indigenous resources. Therefore alternative energy resources have to be exploited to meet the energy demand in addition to import of oil and gas from abroad.
Solar energy is the most promising source of energy for Pakistan. It is available in abundant quantities and free of charge. On an average 16 to 20 MJ of solar energy is received on each square meter area and most parts of the country enjoys clear sky radiation for 300 (+) days per annum. In agriculture sector, solar water pumping and lighting systems, solar dryers, solar air and water heaters, solar green-houses etc can be used at farm level thus substituting for commercial energy. Similarly the raw material for production of bio-gas is available in abundant quantities (443 million tones per annum). About 10 million m3 of bio-gas can be produced if 50% of the animal waste is used for the purpose. Thus the rural population can benefit both from solar and biogas energy resources and improve their on-farm operations.
This project has been proposed to promote use of solar and biogas energy technologies through demonstration of solar water pumping and lighting systems, and installation of family size biogas plants at 5000 farms in the Punjab.

LAND RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT FOR THE UPLIFT OF THE FARMING COMMUNITY WITH BULLDOZERS
There are about 4.10 million acres of cultureable waste in the Punjab which can be developed with bulldozers or high power tractors. It has been estimated that more than 50% of the land (i.e. 2.05 million acres) needs bulldozer work. In order to develop 2.05 million acres over 25 years, about 600 bulldozers operational all the year round are required. The Field Wing of Agriculture Department has 553 bulldozers (361 Komatsu 120 H.P and 192 Caterpillar 90 H.P) most of which (95%) have covered economic life (11000 hours). At present the department is operating old fleet of 350 -370 bulldozers after incurring heavy expenditures on their repair as such the fleet needs replacement with new machines. Another option is to rehabilitate old machines and put them into operation for another 5 to 7 years.
In order to strengthen the existing fleet of bulldozers for enhancing land development works, it has been planned to procure 200 new bulldozers (120-140 H.P) under grant from Japan. Requirement of 200 machines will cost about 4..00 billion Japanese Yen.

STRENGTHENING/UP-GRADATION OF AGRICULTURE ENGINEERING WORKSHOPS
The Field Wing of Agriculture Department Punjab maintains a fleet of 553 bulldozers out of which 350 to 370 are functional and are being provided to the farmers on rental basis. The remaining lot requires heavy expenditure for their rehabilitation. The general overhauling, repair and maintenance of bulldozers and other machinery is carried out in 24 Agricultural Engineering Workshops which are located in most of the districts of the Punjab. These workshops were established about 30 years ago and since their inception no up-gradation / replacement of the facilities have been provided as a result of which the available machinery and equipment have become obsolete and outdated, hence the workshops need upgradation. Further proper tools and testing equipment/laboratories for inspection and testing of machine engines and other components are not available in these workshops.
In order to economize the operation of bulldozers through efficient repair and maintenance service and to increase the operational strength of bulldozer through rebuilding of old fleet, it has been planned that four workshops at Bahawalpur, Multan, Faisalabad and Talagang shall be strengthened / upgraded through provision of machinery & equipment for R&M facilities under Japanese grant. The main objective of strengthening these workshops is to repair and rebuild critical component including engines, hydraulic pumps, fuel injection pumps and transmission system etc. and keep them ready as service units to minimize the machine down time to ensure maximum duration of machine utilization in the field.