As the wheat-sowing window opens today, 1 November, a 10-day awareness campaign is sending agriculture students into Punjab’s farming districts to take modern sowing advice directly to farmers — and Jhang’s growers fall within its reach.
The campaign, run by the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) in collaboration with the Punjab Agriculture Extension Department, runs from 30 October to 8 November across six divisions of Punjab. Business Recorder, reporting on 1 November, lists those divisions as Gujranwala, Gujrat, Lahore, Sahiwal, Sargodha and Faisalabad. Jhang district is part of Faisalabad division, so the campaign’s outreach covers the division in which Jhang’s farmers work.
It is important to state the scope plainly. This is a province-wide campaign, not a Jhang-only programme, and the reports so far do not give a village-by-village schedule for Jhang. Farmers who want to meet a visiting team should check with their local agriculture extension office rather than assuming a visit to their own village.
The campaign was launched at an inaugural ceremony at UAF’s Iqbal Auditorium. Punjab Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture Usama Khan Leghari addressed the opening session and called on agriculture students to act as ambassadors of agricultural innovation, taking modern farming technology and scientific practice directly to farmers. He said young graduates could play a central role in strengthening food security, mechanisation and agricultural entrepreneurship.
Business Recorder reports that around 32,000 students have been mobilised for the drive across the province, drawing on UAF, MNS University of Agriculture Multan and PMAS Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi. UAF Vice-Chancellor Professor Zulfiqar Ali, speaking at the launch, said more than 3,200 students from the university’s departments and sub-campuses would suspend academic activities for a week to take part. The two figures describe different scopes — the wider multi-university drive and UAF’s own contingent — and both are reported here as published.
Three priorities run through everything the campaign is teaching, according to Punjab Secretary Agriculture Shakeel Ahmad Mian: timely sowing, certified seed, and line sowing. The timing point is the most urgent. Farmers in irrigated areas are advised to complete sowing between 1 and 20 November, and the campaign’s field teams will be pressing that window throughout their ten days in the field.
Line sowing is the practice the campaign is most keen to spread. At present, the secretary said, it is practised on only around 11 per cent of Punjab’s wheat-growing area, largely in the rain-fed Potohar region, while traditional broadcasting — scattering seed by hand — remains common across the major plains. Line sowing places seed in rows at a controlled depth and spacing, which helps germination and makes weeding and fertiliser use more efficient.
Director General Agriculture Extension Shahbaz Akhtar said the campaign would reinforce field outreach through nearly 400 general gatherings, 200 mega gatherings and 500 village contact sessions, plus media briefings. Farmers will also be advised on balanced fertiliser use and improved crop management.
Support measures featured prominently at the launch. Leghari said the government was facilitating farmers through the Kisan Card, mechanised equipment including super seeders, and a support price of Rs4,500 per maund, with the per-acre credit limit under the Kisan Card increased to help growers cope with rising input costs. He also said more than Rs350 billion had been disbursed in agricultural microfinance loans through the Bank of Punjab, with a recovery rate of 99 per cent.
The vice-chancellor said the initiative built on UAF’s student internship programme in farmers’ fields, launched in 2010, and a joint annual campaign with the Punjab Agriculture Department begun in 2021.
For Jhang’s farmers, the timing could hardly be better. The district endured a devastating flood season earlier this year, and the water regulator has approved a 22 per cent shortage in water availability for this Rabi season. Wheat is the district’s main winter crop, and most of its land is canal-irrigated, so getting the sowing right in the next twenty days matters more than usual. What is new this week is that students are carrying the department’s advice into the field, division by division, with Faisalabad division on their route.
Source: Business Recorder, “UAF mobilises 32,000 students for 10-day wheat campaign”, published 1 November 2026; Associated Press of Pakistan via UrduPoint, “Punjab Mobilises Agriculture Students For Province-Wide Wheat Awareness Campaign”, published 31 October 2026.
