Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today urged the Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to sanction a financial assistance of Rs1000 crores to the state for creating necessary infrastructure to develop technology for production of alternate crops and their post harvest handling towards a major push for persification of agriculture. Taking part in the deliberations the Chief Minister, who called on the Union Agriculture Minister at his residence here today, apprised him that persification of the agriculture was the need of the hour to bail out the beleaguered peasantry of the state from the conventional wheat-paddy rotation besides motivating them to go for other alternate crops by ensuring remunerative returns to them. He said that the institutional and infrastructural support provided to the state would go a long way towards a paradigm shift from paddy to alternate crops. Badal also asked the Union Agriculture Minister to ensure that a remunerative Minimum Support Price for alternate crops may be announced well in advance of the sowing season and an efficient procurement mechanism should be assured for the marketing of these crops, through a designated agency of the Government of India, as in case of wheat and paddy, so that proper marketing of these crops could be guaranteed.The Chief Minister said that these initiatives would help the state to persify away from rice in wake of its increasing production in the Eastern States including Eastern U.P., Bihar, Odhisa, West Bengal, Assam and Madhya Pradesh during the last three years. He further said that being an irrigated area, a large number of crops could be successfully cultivated in Punjab, which could easily replace paddy and help in conservation of natural resource base for agriculture i.e. soil and water in the State. Pleading for handsome returns on alternate crops in lieu of paddy, the Chief Minister underscored the need to give atleast 15% more returns as compared to paddy to encourage the farmers to shift to alternate crops. Badal apprised the Union Minister that as the GoI had ensured procurement of paddy at minimum support price, Punjab, conventionally a non-rice producing area, took up its production on a large scale. He said that the area under paddy which was about 2.4 lakh hectares in 1961 has now increased to about 28 lakh hectares. The State has been contributing about 90 LMT of rice (135 LMT of paddy) to the Central Pool.Seeking immediate release of Relief package of Rs 5112 crore to bail the Punjab farmers out of the crisis following the drought like condition due to deficit rains in the region, the Chief Minister sought personal intervention of Pawar for sanctioning the same at the earliest. Badal apprised the Union agriculture Minister that he along with Union Rural Development Minister Jai Ram Ramesh visited the state on August 10 to have the first hand information about the extra expenditure incurred by the farmers and the state government in sowing and nurturing the paddy due to truant monsoon in the state. It may be recalled the package demanded by the State Govt. includes Rs. 2531 crore for purchase and arrangement of additional power, Rs. 850.80 crore to compensate for additional cost incurred by the farmers on of high speed diesel, Rs. 893.49 for conversion/rescheduling of cooperative credit, Rs. 300 crore on account of additional ground water Irrigation, Rs. 300 crore for restoration of capacity and installation of alternative tube-wells, Rs. 211.60 crore for arrangement of feed and fodder for livestock sector and Rs. 26 crore for drinking water supply.Besides this, the Chief Minister also demanded a bonus of Rs 100 per quintal for paddy over and above the MSP which itself needed significant upward revision. The State had already demanded a MSP of Rs1650 per quintal for paddy in view of the increase in prices of fertilizers, diesel, labour etc. Likewise, the MSP of cotton should be raised by Rs 500 per quintal over and above the MSP announced this year. A drought relief of Rs. 200 per quintal for maize may be provided. The GoI should direct the Public Sector Banks to reschedule the repayment of loans from Short Term to Medium Term and a subvention to compensate them for additional burden of interest due to such conversion of loans may also be provided.Responding to the demands put forth by the Chief Minister, Pawar assured him that GoI would extend all possible help and support to the state in this hour of crisis. On the issue of persification of agriculture the Union Minister assured Badal that the GoI would help Punjab financially for persifying to alternate crops. Showing concern for motivating the Punjab farmers towards persification, Pawar informed the Chief Minister that a two day seminar was being organized at Chandigarh
_from September 28-29 to create awareness about the significance of the much needed push towards heralding a second green revolution in the form of persification of agriculture. The seminar would be addressed by the senior officers of Agriculture department of GoI besides eminent agriculture experts and scientists from the country to apprise the officers of the Punjab government, progressive farmers of the state and researchers of Punjab Agriculture University about the significance of agriculture persification especially in the context of Punjab on one hand and to evolve the consensus on this vital issue on the other. Regarding the subvention of the loan Pawar assured the Chief Minister that he would soon take up the matter with the Union Finance minister P Chidambaram. He also appreciated the efforts of the brave Punjab farmers for their outstanding contribution in making the country self reliant in food production and hoped that this year also they would replicate the same despite the vagaries of weather.