To help Punjab’s distressed peasantry to come out from the vicious circle of stagnated agrarian economy, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday sought Rs5,000 crore special package for proper infrastructure and marketing mechanism.
Calling on Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar at Krishi Bhawan on Monday morning, Badal urged him to help the State in propagating its much-needed crop diversification plan, as the traditional agriculture was no more a profitable occupation due to the squeezed margins of profit owing to non-remunerative MSP coupled with the hike in agricultural input prices.
Badal impressed upon the Union Agriculture Minister to immediately sanction Rs5000 crore for diversification program in the State to shift the majority of cultivable area from paddy to cash rich crops like maize, oilseeds, fruits, vegetables and others.
He pointed out that this could only happen with adequate technical and financial support from Centre, and “Rs500 crore sanctioned by the Centre for pursuing crop diversification program in Punjab and Haryana is too little and inadequate”.
Badal said that Centre should considerably increase this amount to Rs5000 crore on the pattern of “Bringing Green Revolution in the Eastern States Program”.
He bemoaned the pathetic condition of Punjab farmers who were already at crossroads and felt ditched by the Centre for its adverse policies.
Badal, however, informed Pawar that the State Government had already drafted an agriculture policy that is aimed at pushing the agenda of crop diversification, which was the hallmark of farmer’s prosperity in general and boosting Punjab’s economy in particular.
Pleading the case of agriculture diversification, the Chief Minister said that the Centre should come forward for incentivising the Basmati cultivation which was not only a profitable preposition but also less water-intensive as compared to the paddy.
Badal also called upon the Union Agriculture Minister to earmark sufficient funds to ludhiana’s Punjab Agriculture University, a premier Agriculture institute of the region, to undertake extensive research in the field of crop diversification.
Responding to various issues raised by Badal, Pawar assured him that the Centre was already aware of the State’s concern for crop diversification, and said that he would soon send a team of agriculture diversification experts.
The team will explore the possibility to help the State to switch over its sizeable cultivable area under paddy to other alternate crops besides promoting dairy farming, horticulture, floriculture, fishery, goatary, piggery and bee keeping in a big way.