Pakistan PM Initiates Sustainable Agricultural Production Project, LIMS
Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, China to invest in agriculture sector of Pakistan
- Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, China to invest in agriculture sector of Pakistan
- Saudi Arabia has provided an initial $500 million investment for agriculture project
- LIMS is a modern agro-farming, utilizing over nine million hectares of state land
- LIMS will be used for optimise agricultural production through innovative technologies and sustainable agricultural practices
Islamabad: to revolutionize the agriculture sector of Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday launched a new initiative, Land Information and Management System-Centre of Excellence (LIMS-CoE). This system will utilize over nine million hectares of uncultivated state land to develop modern agriculture forms as the south Asian nation, 220 million populations, faces the severe food shortages.
The inaugural ceremony of this modern agriculture project was attended by Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir, ministers, provincial chief secretaries, agricultural experts and army officers.
According to official sources, LIMS-CoE, the first exceptional initiative, is aimed at enhancing food security, improving agricultural exports and reducing import burden on national exchequer by transforming millions of acres of uncultivated/ low-yield land in the country. The system would help optimise agricultural production through innovative technologies and sustainable agricultural practices, based on agro-ecological potential of land, while ensuring wellbeing of rural communities and preservation of environment.
Saudi Arabia has provided an initial $500 million investment to set up the facility, and huge foreign investment is expected to be made in the sector in near future.
“As far as the high efficiency irrigation system is concerned, Saudi Arabia has already given us [Pakistan] $500 million,” Maj-Gen Shahid Nazeer, who heads the LIMS-CoE, told reporters at a briefing on Thursday.
“Aimed at enhancing modern agro-farming utilising over 9 million hectares of uncultivated waste state land, the LISM-CoE has been established under the Director General Strategic Projects of Pakistan Army,” he added.
The state-of-the-art agriculture system would revolutionise means to steer agricultural development through real-time information about land, crops, weather, water resource and pest-handling under one roof, according to the official.
This agriculture centre would work in collaboration with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and China on various agriculture projects to enhance Pakistan’s exports, sources told media.
“In the next 3-4 days, a very high-powered Saudi delegation is coming to Pakistan to explore this kind of investment in four major sectors including agriculture, mines and minerals, information technology (IT) and defence production,” he said, adding that that would be done under the umbrella of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) that was recently established to revive the Pakistani economy.
