After the success of the summit on Industries, a buoyed Punjab Government on Friday announced that it would hold Progressive Punjab Agriculture Summit 2014 — a mega agricultural event first time in the history of the State on February 16 at Chappar Chiri (Mohali).
A decision to this effect was taken by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal while presiding over a preliminary meeting held here at Punjab Bhawan with the top brass of the State to review the arrangements of this summit. Badal approved five-day long programme of the Summit and an Exhibition. The Chief Minister said that the main objective of the Summit was to give impetus to the agro-based economy of the state by showcasing various technical aspects being introduced by the State Government for the agricultural development in the State.
Punjab was basically an agrarian economy but today in terms of crop productivity and soil fertility the agriculture has reached at a saturation point and this summit would prove to be a mile stone for the development of agricultural sector through bringing an awareness amongst our farmers for opting allied farming under the diversification plan of the State that would rut the farmers from wheat/paddy rotation on one hand and supplement their income on the other.
The Chief Minister directed the officers to identify National as well as International Institutions to ensure their rich participation in the Summit besides, extending invitation to a large number of progressive farmers, agriculture experts and leading agriculture companies from across the globe for having detailed deliberations during the summit for chalking out the strategy to bail out the farmers of the State from the current agrarian crisis.
Badal asked the departments concerned, PAU and GADVASU to coordinate in a proper manner to make this mega historic event a great success. He hoped that this summit would also open new avenues in the Food Processing sector, which would immensely benefit farmers. According to the plan, the inaugural session on February 16 would follow a massive Agro Exhibition over about 50 acres with 400 stalls by the exhibitors from across the globe. About 12 Technical Sessions on various agro subjects would be conducted during five day long programme till February 20 and last two days would be dedicated to the Horticulture sector in which a large participation of different countries is expected.
During the summit, progressive farmers, scientists, researchers and other eminent persons who had contributed enormously for the development of the Agricultural sector would also be honoured. Those present included Chairman Punjab State Farmer’s Commission Dr GS Kalkat, Advisor to CM on National Affairs Harcharn Bains, Chief Secretary Rakesh Singh, amongst other officials.