In a move to save the agricultural lands in sub-mountainous or Kandi regions from the scourge of wild animals, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday directed the Government to provide financial assistance in installing fences for the farmers. Acting on the recommendations of the Punjab Farmers’ Commission chairman GS Kalkatt, who had highlighted the farmers’ plight before the Chief Minister in a meeting, Badal asked authorities to formulate a special scheme so that the farmers of Kandi areas could be given financial assistance for installing fence around their land.
Expressing concern over the plight of these farmers whose crops were ruined by the wild animals, Badal said that the poor farmers must be extended a helping hand by the State. He asked the authorities to explore the feasibility of promoting horticulture in this area by providing subsidies to the farmers so that they could be benefited from it. In another decision, the Chief Minister asked the State Agriculture Department to make efforts in promoting soya bean cultivation in the State as it could prove to be a boon for the farmers of the State.
Badal asked the Government authorities to undertake the trails of Sl 958 variety of soya bean, recently developed by the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), in the farms across the State to gauge its performance. In order to tackle with the problem of burning of paddy straw, the CM asked the Agriculture Department to prepare the plan for promoting ultra-modern straw choppers in the state by providing maximum subsidy on it. He said that the ultra-modern choppers available at a price of Rs2.25 lakh must be popularised by giving subsidies besides providing them to Agro Service Centres and individual farmers.