Pakistan initiates national agricultural plan

Pakistan's government has initiated its National Bio-Saline Agriculture Programme (NABSAP) to bring 6.8 million hectares of land under proper cultivation, which would help save about PKR20 billion (US$241 million) annually.

Pakistan's agriculture is suffering heavily from several problems, including land degradation, salinity, water logging, structure deterioration, fertility depletion and soil erosion, said officials in the farm ministry.

The officials said arable land was also used for non-agriculture purposes.

Salinity alone adversely affected agriculture on 6.8 million hectares of land, and the programme will address salinity problems by developing bio-saline agriculture for profitable utilisation of saline land and water.

The programme's priority is to introduce site-specific interventions, help develop agricultural enterprises, and educating farmers. The plan would be completed by 2013 and would cover 11 districts nationwide.

The programme will also seek to rehabilitate salt-affected areas, resident farming communities and environment.

Under the initiative, the government has set targets to establish 286 community organisations, 286 nurseries, 121 aquaculture ponds and 1,100 demonstration plots.