Need to convert 3.8 mln acres barren land to agricultural soil in Punjab.

MULTAN -- About 3.8-million-acre land was barren or non-agricultural soil in Punjab province which could be converted into fertile land in order to benefit country's agriculture sector.

According to official sources,the total cultivation area in the province was about 50.7 million acres. Although, the steps were being taken to convert barren land or non-agricultural land into fertile soil but the work speed for conversion of barren land to fertile land was considered slow as only 25,000 to 30,000 acres were converted to fertile land annually.

According to Director General (Agriculture Field) Ghulam Siddique, the Agriculture Engineering Department (Field Wing) had prepared over 1.65 million acres so far.Similarly, the process for conversion of barren land to fertile area was heading forward smoothly.The only way for preparation of barren land was use of Bulldozers, he stated.

Bulldozer is a heavy machine that helps prepare pieces of land for agricultural work more easily than manual human labour, improving the efficiency and cost of the preparation process. The Agriculture Engineering Department have 297 Bulldozers for this purpose. The department provided its services to farmers for levelling or preparation of the land.

The use of Bulldozer was equally beneficial for preparation of soil in both, mountains and plain areas. The increase in cultivation area is vital...