The Agriculture Department was established in United India by the British regime during 1880s. The duties assigned were crop improvement through the introduction of improved varieties/breeds of crops and cattle, development of forest cover on barren lands and enhancement of cottage industry in the country. The Punjab Agriculture Department was raised during 1890’s. Punjab Agricultural College and Research Institute was established at Lyallpur (now Faisalabad) in 1906 and it was assigned the duties of research, extension activities, exotic introductions, etc. In 1962 the PACRI was split into three independent sections i.e., the Agriculture Extension, Agriculture Research and the College which was raised to the status of the University, initially called the West Pakistan Agricultural University, now the University of Agriculture Faisalabad. With passage of the time Forest Department, Fisheries Department, Livestock Department and Cooperative department became independent departments.
Major Components:
- The Directorate General Agriculture (Extension & Adaptive Research)
- The Directorate General Agriculture (Research)
- The Directorate General ABAD, Rawalpindi
- The Directorate General of Agriculture (Soil Conservation)
- The Directorate General of Agriculture (On Farm Water Management)
- The Directorate General of Agriculture (Field)
- The Directorate General of Agriculture (Marketing)
- The Directorate General of Agriculture (PW & QCP )
Major Duties:
- The crop monitoring
- The crop surveys
- The calamity catastrophes reporting
- The quality control of pesticides and fertilizers
- The coordination between various wings of this department
- Farmer training in major crops
- Provision of free literature to farmers
- Free farm visits and advises
- Office dealing with farmers and suggesting solution of their problems
- Completion of special assignments of the District Government
Projects
Four projects, being completed in the district with the coordination of various government agencies, are as following:
- Integration of Research and Extension Activities has successfully been completed during 2002-005. Now rice transplanting technique was introduced which save labor and time of the farmer community.
- Crop Maximization Project has been completed very successfully during 2002-2006. Now the second phase has been launched in 72-Villages. In this project justified use of inputs, provision of loans, provision of latest machinery and fist hand information increased the farm income and the crop production was raised by 25% in the project area.
- APL project of PARC/TTI has been completed in the Peero Chak Union Council and the farmers were provided with latest technology of crop production and animal husbandry
- Survey for the implementation of project Establishment of Agro Services Centres in Satrah Markaz has been completed