Punjab launches fourth Green Tractor phase, opens fifth portal

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif launched the fourth phase of the Green Tractor Scheme on Wednesday and opened the application portal for its fifth phase. Under the two phases, the provincial government will provide 19,500 tractors to farmers during the current fiscal year.

The chief minister pressed a button for digital balloting, and Masood Khan, son of Lal Khan, from Attock became the first successful applicant to receive a tractor under phase four, Daily Times reported.

According to the newspaper, 10,000 tractors of 50 to 65 horsepower will be supplied in the fourth phase with a subsidy of Rs750,000 per tractor. In the fifth phase, 9,500 high-powered tractors of 75 to 125 horsepower will be offered with a subsidy of Rs1 million each.

The Punjab government has allocated Rs17.6 billion for the scheme. Daily Times said 24,000 tractors have already been provided to farmers under the programme with a subsidy of Rs1 million per tractor.

More than 213,637 farmers applied for the scheme, and 128,757 were declared eligible for balloting after verification through the Punjab Land Records Authority and Nadra, the report added.

The chief minister congratulated successful applicants and inspected tractors offered under the scheme, including locally manufactured 90-horsepower and locally assembled 100-horsepower models.

The briefing highlighted expansion of agricultural mechanisation in the province: 10,000 tractors were provided in the previous 20 years compared with 35,000 distributed during Sharif's two-and-a-half-year tenure. Similarly, Rs3 billion was spent on agricultural mechanisation over two decades compared with Rs20 billion during the last two and a half years.

Punjab has witnessed local manufacturing of 90-horsepower tractors and assembly of 100-horsepower tractors for the first time, Daily Times reported. Farmers owning five acres or more of agricultural land were eligible to apply. District-wise quotas were fixed according to the proportion of cultivated land, with Bhakkar, Jhang, Lodhran and Vehari among the districts allocated relatively higher shares.

Provincial Agriculture Minister Ashiq Kirmani said five locally manufactured tractor models had been included in the scheme and the initiative had contributed to an increase in tractor manufacturing and sales in Punjab.