Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today asked the Punjab Rice Exporters Association (PREA) to adopt a nearby cluster of 8-10 villages for the quality seed production of Basmati varieties like 1501, 421 besides initiating vigorous efforts for the revival of traditional variety of Basmati-386, which was known for its unique aromatic fragrance and taste world over. The Chief Minister impressed upon the members of the PREA, who called on him in his office this morning, thereby assuring all support and cooperation for this pro-farmer cause, which would not only help the state government to boost its efforts of agriculture persification but also ensure highly remunerative prices of their produce.
Badal said that the state agriculture department along with the association could put in efforts jointly for the production of quality Basmati seed as this step was being viewed as giving further impetus to the Basmati’s export potential manifold.Expressing gratitude to the Chief Minister for the incentives extended to the Rice Exporters and Millers, the PREA assured Mr. Badal that with the picking up of the Basmati arrival in the coming days, the state farmers would be enormously benefitted with the price touching Rs 3000 plus per quintal mark. The Chief Minister also promised to resolve all the pending issues of the PREA at the forum of Basmati development Board and asked the officers to fix its meeting at the earliest. Likewise, Mr. Badal also promised to take up the issue of recognition of 1121 variety of Basmati in the Europe with the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India (GoI), which has not yet been defined as approved export variety in the European market.
He also assured them to get the issue of levying entry tax on the Basmati varieties of PUSA and Sugandha purchased from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and other states, thoroughly examined. Laying thrust on the need for bringing awareness amongst the farmers about the moisture content in Basmati crop, the Chief Minister said that the state government and PREA must synergize their efforts in this regard by launching vigorous media campaign, so that the farmers could get remunerative prices of their produce.
Prominent amongst other present in the meeting included Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. SK Sandhu, Special Principal Secretaries Mr. Gaggandip Singh Brar and Mr. Ajoy Kumar Sharma.The PREA delegation was led by its Director Mr. Ashok Sethi besides Mr. Arvinderpal Singh, Mr. Ashok Arora, Mr. Satish Vohra, Mr. Amit Marwaha, Mr. Sumit Aggarwal and Mr. Vivek Gupta.