In a bid to boost the Agrarian economy of the state and enable it to face the major challenge likely to be posed by the GOI’s future policy of fixing state wise quota for paddy procurement, the Punjab government is all set to offer back up support and co-operation to the farmers in its mission to put the state on fast track of crop persification. Presiding over a marathon meeting with the representatives of various Progressive Farmers’ associations which lasted for nearly six hours here today at Punjab Bhawan, Punjab Chief Minister . Parkash Singh Badal emphasized the need to motivate the farmers of the state to adopt the cultivation of crops like maize, sugarcane, cotton and agro forestry which were the viable alternatives of paddy crop to prevent the over exploitation natural resources of the state. He envisioned the state government would soon initiate steps to reduce the current area under paddy cultivation from 28 lakh hectares to nearly 15 lakh hectares by shifting the area under paddy cultivation to other crops like maize, sugarcane, and cotton. Likewise . Badal also said that it was the need of the hour to encourage the farmers to resort to Agriculture allied activities like dairy farming, bee keeping, piggery, fishery poultry farming and others to enhance their income as the constant hike in the agricultural inputs has rendered farming a non- profitable venture. The Chief Minister said that shifting towards crop persification was the utmost requirement in the current scenario as due to decline in income the distress peasantry of the state was on the crossroads. Reiterating the commitment of the state government to bail out the farmers in this hour of crisis, . Badal said that their government would leave no stone unturned for raising all the issues related to the farming as well as its allied activities with the government of India. He informed that on his pursuance GOI was sending a high level expert team on October, 4 to visit Punjab for early solutions to these problems. The Chief Minister urged the progressive farmers to list out their issues which needs to be addressed by the GoI so that they could be aptly raised in this meeting. The Chief Minister also gave nod for constituting an advisory committee for every allied agriculture allied activity for encouraging the farmers for persification of crops in the state. He also approved to set up 4 timber markets at Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur, Balachaur and Dasuya to facilitate farmers in the Agro Forestery business. While discussions with the representatives of Rice Exporter’s Associations . Badal assured that concerted efforts would be made to bring large chunk of area for sowing quality basmati instead of coarse paddy, this would ensure better returns to the Rice exporters in terms of exports and value addition. Accepting their long pending demand the Chief Minister announced to wave off 3% Punjab infrastructure development cess on Basmati export outrightly. For the promotion of bee keeping in the state, . Badal asked the Forest department to allow the bee keepers to run their business in the forests of Kandi areas as these small bee keepers had to place their bee boxes which was an eco-friendly activity. He also informed that there was no entry tax on honey in the state. . Badal called upon the youth to adopt bee keeping as there was a tremendous scope in this sector. He also assured all technical and financial assistance to establish this business besides initiating training through free refresher course at Punjab Agriculture University Ludhiana. He directed the Chief Principal Conservator Forest to identify the plants for a-forestation beneficial for bee keeping. He also assured that government would take up the export related issues raised by the association with the GOI team and make consulted efforts to develop a domestic market through an awareness campaign amongst masses for the beneficial use of honey in daily life. Expressing the need to boost dairy farming in the state . Badal said that there was a tremendous scope to develop it by many fold. He asked the Milkfed to prepare a Project Plan for producing high value product of milk like Ice cream to ensure better price for milk to the dairy farmers in the state. He further said that the state government was providing imported sex semen for cattle to the farmers at 50% subsidy. He asked Animal Husbandry Department to work out the modalities for providing same to the Small Dairy Farmers at 75% subsidy. For providing better low cost green fodder to these small scale dairy farmers the Chief Minister asked PAU to conduct a vigorous research on it. To facilitate the small and marginal dairy farmers the Chief Minister asked the department to depute a special nodal officer for early disposal of pending loan cases for the setting up of two to ten cattle dairy units under NABARD’s scheme. Likewise, . Badal asked the other associations of Piggery, Fishery, Poultry etc. to set up their processing units for which government was ready to provide financial assistance. He said that fishery could also be promoted in the water logged areas where fishes could grow in the saline water. Government was establishing a fish market at Ludhiana to boost fishery, added . Badal.For the promotion of vegetable growing sector green house cultivation concept would be introduced in the state with the technical support of foreign country like Israel and poly houses technique would be promoted to enhance the yield of vegetable crops, said . Badal. He directed Punjab Agro to accelerate the pace of work for setting up of approved five Agri pack houses. It was informed in the meeting that three of these would be made operational by October, 2012. Prominent amongst those who attended the meeting included; Chairman Punjab Farmers Commission Dr. GS Kalkat, Chief Parliamentary Secretary . Gurbachan Singh Babehali, Financial Commissioner Development GS Sandhu, Financial Commissioner Co-operation Viswajeet Khanna, Financial Commissioner Animal Husbandry & Director Dairy Development Jagpal Singh Sandhu, Special Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Gaggandip Singh Brar, MD Milkfed and Advisor Agriculture Balwinder Singh Sidhu, MD Punjab Agro Kirandeep Singh Bhullar, Director Agriculture Mangal Singh Sandhu, Director Dairy Development Inderjit Singh and Director Animal Husbandry Dr. HS Sandha besides representatives of various progressive farmers’ associations of Punjab.