Awareness programs for sunflower growers.

FAISALABAD -- The Agriculture Department has launched awareness programs for sunflower growers to get bumper crop through better cultivation and use of modern production technology.

According to Director Agriculture Chaudhry Abdul Hameed, sunflower is an important and cash crop which will not only meet the domestic food requirements but also play a vital role in mitigating financial sufferings of the growers.

He said that Pakistan was producing only 20% of domestic requirement of edible oil which was insufficient, however, there was a dire need to cultivate sunflower at large scale by using latest technologies.

He said the Punjab government had announced to provide a subsidy of Rs 5000 per acre to each sunflower cultivator. He said the best time for sunflower cultivation in Faisalabad was from January 15 to the end of February. Therefore, the farmers should cultivate sunflower crop on-time because late sowing will not only affect the quantity but also quality of the grains.

He said the agriculture department had set a target of more than 96,000 acres for sunflower cultivation in Punjab to produce more than 65,000 tonne yield.

At present, he said that Pakistan was producing 34% of the country's edible oil while 66% edible oil has to be imported from other countries and in this way billions of...