Registration of 1.4m farmers for Kissan Card completes

LAHORE:Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Syed Ashiq Hussain Kirmani has said Kissan Card is a history-making and farmer-friendly project of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.

He was speaking at a meeting held at Agriculture House here on Thursday. In the meeting, Chief Minister Kissan Card, Green Tractor Programme and the arrangements regarding the supply of super seeders were reviewed.

Secretary Agriculture Iftikhar Ali Sahoo and Bank of Punjab President Zafar Masood attended the meeting. On the occasion, Agriculture minister said that Kissan Card is a history-making and farmer-friendly project of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz. ‘Registration of 1.4 million farmers for Kissan Card has been completed till now while Punjab Bank has approved 4 lakh 30 thousand applications and so far 3 lakh 10 thousand Kisan Cards farmers have been activated by the farmers’, he said.

In the meeting, the minister was told that the process of purchasing through Kisan Card is going on at the shops of 2,600 merchants (registered dealers) across Punjab and since the activation of Kissan Card till now, the farmers have purchased products of 2 billion rupees.

The minister highlighted that according to the vision of the CM, exemplary projects for the development and prosperity of farmers in the agriculture sector are being implemented in the province, which will reduce the problems of farmers and enable them to become self-sufficient.

He said 136 delivery centres have been established at the tehsil level for the provision of Kisan cards. He endorsed that farmers are purchasing seeds, fertilisers and other agricultural inputs from 2,600 registered dealers across the province through Kisan Card.

He directed a strict action against those dealers creating artificial shortage of seeds, fertilisers and agro-medicines and charging more than the government rate. The minister issued instructions to the field staff of agriculture extension in non-digitised areas to register Kissan Card through physical verification. He explained that till now 1.5 million farmers have registered themselves under the Chief Minister Punjab Green Tractor Scheme.

A transparent balloting will be held soon for the Green Tractor Programme and farmers will be provided 9,500 tractors on subsidy. He made it clear that the quota of each district has been allocated under this scheme, which will be ensured to be implemented in a transparent manner.