Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday urged the farmers to shift allied farming sectors, such as livestock farming, to boost their income and get out of the vicious paddy-rice circle.
Capt Amarinder, inaugurating the 10th National livestock Championship and Expo-2017 organized by the state Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries Departments in collaboration with Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), said that with traditional farming leading to depleting margins, allied farming had emerged as the need of the hour.
He underlined the need to motivate farmers to adopt dairying and allied activities like piggery, goat rearing, bee keeping, poultry, fisheries etc to supplement their income.
Citing the record 190 lakh MTs of paddy production in the current Kharif season, the Chief Minister lauded the contribution of Punjab’s progressive farmers to the annual record milk production of 120 lakh tonnes.
Pointing to the initiatives being taken by his government to boost farmers’ income in the allied farming sectors, he gave the example of measures adopted to promote prawn cultivation, especially in the waterlogged Malwa belt over a stretch of 2500 acres.
later, taking part in deliberations during the technical session with foreign delegates from United Kingdom, United States of America, Poland and Bulgaria, Capt Amarinder assured them of his government’s full support and cooperation in providing technical know-how, besides facilitating import of sexed semen and high quality germplasm.