Govt initiates climate resilient farming in Balochistan

Balochistan government initiated millions of rupees farming projects focused on promoting climate resilient and low water-consuming farming, aimed to fight water scarcity in the province.

The government took the initiative to encourage farmers for cultivating olive trees and had allocated Rs200 million for the development and boosting of olive farming across the province.

Plants were being established in various cities of the province for extraction of olive oil, an official of Agriculture department of Balochistan said while talking to APP.            

Balochistan Agriculture Research and Development Centre was working for the promotion of pistachio in the province as part of its upcoming low water consuming project, he said.   

According to the official, research was being conducted in collaboration with international agro based organisations in this regard.

“The department has taken measures to encourage local farmers to cultivate saffron in cold areas of the province which is climate resilient,” he said, adding a low water-consuming crop could be easily grown in such areas without conventional irrigation methods.

He further maintained the objective of the initiative was to divert attention of local farmers from growing traditional wheat crop to focus on cultivating high value crops.

Old harvesting techniques and non-availability of appropriate packing of crops was remained the main reason behind less production, he regretted.

“The provincial government has started training programmes for farmers and landowners on modern farming methods,” he said adding the initiative would help generate revenue for the province and bring large areas of barren land under cultivation.

In order to improve underground water level, he said, the government was working to construct more dams across the province that would help meeting water shortage in Balochistan.