Terming that the ‘Blue Revolution’ in the state could transform the destiny of the farmers, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said that the SAD-BJP alliance government was making all out efforts for promoting fish farming in the state. Addressing the gathering after visiting 100 acres fish farm of a progressive farmer Mr. Jaspal Singh Kang here today, the Chief Minister said that Punjab had pioneered ‘Green Revolution’ in the country, which was instrumental in providing food security to the country. However, he said that with escalating input costs and squeezing margins of profit agriculture was no longer a profitable venture due to which the farmers of the state were on the brink of economic crisis. Mr. Badal said that in such a dismal scenario pisciculture was the only ray of hope for the farmers as they could supplement their income through it.
The Chief Minister further said that in order to encourage fish farming in the state, the Punjab government has recently constituted Fisheries Board in the state. Likewise, he said that special thrust was being laid on imparting training to the fish farmers from reputed institutes both within the country and abroad. Citing the examples, Mr. Badal said that while the farmers were sent for getting training to Bhuvneshar another delegation of farmers visited China to acquaint themselves with the techniques of fish farming at both these places.The Chief Minister said that the state government was giving 40% subsidy for setting up fish farms in the state. Similarly, he said that now as a pilot project the state government was giving 90% subsidy on setting up 100 acres fish farm in water logged areas of the state to promote fish farming in these areas. Mr. Badal said that currently six villages have been selected under this scheme out of which four were in Sri Muktsar Sahib district and two in Fazilka district.
The Chief Minister said that due to the stupendous efforts of the state government, Punjab was leading the country in fresh water fish productivity. However, he said that state government was aiming to increase this production manifolds as the fish farmers in China were getting a record production to 32-33 ton fish per hectare as compared to merely six ton per hectare in Punjab. Mr. Badal said that as there was a lot of scope to enhance this production, so the state government was wholeheartedly working towards this objective.
On the occasion, the Chief Minister also had detailed deliberations with Mr. Jaspal Singh Kang, who apprised the former about the problems faced by them. The Chief Minister was accompanied by Chairman District Planning Committee Sri Muktsar Sahib Mr. Hardeep Singh Dimpi Dhillon and Deputy Commissioner Mr. Jaskiran Singh.