Defence forces' corporate farming initiative gets jumpstart

• FonGrow CEO says corporate farms to be expanded to 100,000 acres.
• Import-substitution farming has been institution's focus area.
• First trial of maize crop has yielded 20% more output via initiative.

KHANEWAL: The cutting-edge corporate agriculture farming Sunday got a jumpstart by the defence forces in a multi-billion dollar move, aiming to ensure national food security and tapping the export market, The News reported.

Major General (retd) Tahir Aslam, the managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of FonGrow — a subsidiary of Fauji Foundation — led by defence institutions, said a modern corporate farming project has been launched to take Pakistan’s agriculture to new heights.

"Our main focus area has been import-substitution farming so that domestic production can eventually replace billions of dollar worth of imports," he said.

As part of the flagship project, Green Pakistan Initiative, championed by the Pakistan Army, FonGrow represents a pioneering step towards fully mechanised and intelligent farming in the country.

This milestone was celebrated during a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of the Army Staff, General Asim Munir, highlighting its importance.

FonGrow CEO was talking to Lahore-based journalists during a media visit to the 2,250-acre site of the country’s first corporate farm on Sunday, which is scheduled to be formally inaugurated by the prime minister and army chief today (Monday).

Aslam said FonGrow was devolving a model that foreign investors could replicate at a later stage.

"We strive to expand corporate farms to 100,000 acres for cultivating wheat, cotton, oilseed crops, soybean and sesame in different districts of the country. The Green Initiative eyes corporate farming at one million acres of land by fostering partnership with various foreign and local players," he added.

“We have set up this platform to achieve the goal of reducing foreign dependency through enhanced local production. Our first trial of maize crop has yielded 20% more output than the output of progressive farmers, with lesser use of water, fertiliser and other inputs.

“The establishment of FonGrow farm is truly the first step towards agricultural revolution. This is a one-of-a-kind agricultural system spread over 2,250 acres at Porowal which is planned to be expanded under a robust development plan in the next five years. It consists of mostly barren piece of land,” he said.

To a question, he made it clear that they were not against or competing with small-scale farmers. Rather, he claimed, this initiative would help introduce best farming practices at different levels.

Manager Farms, Muhammad Zahid Aziz, said the country’s agriculture needs to be expanded both horizontally and vertically with a view to increasing the area under cultivation and enhancing per-acre yield.

FonGrow is simultaneously targeting both these goals by employing resource conservation technology.

He said similar corporate farming in desert and semi-desert land in Bhakkar, Mankera and Layyah was also being launched.

Irrigation Consultant, Mushtaq Ahmed Gill, said high-efficiency agriculture had been the hallmark of FonGrow corporate farming where the center pivot irrigation made it possible to conserve water up to 90%.

It is a sheer departure from conventional flood irrigation where most of the water is lost before reaching the plants.