Jathedar Tota Singh, Agriculture Minister Punjab has asked the officers of the department to ensure quality seeds and adequate agriculture inputs to the farmers in order to produce first-rate quality of food grains. He has asked the officers to ensure absolute transparency in the seed distribution system. The Minister was addressing the first state level meeting of the officers of the Agriculture Department here today.
Taking stock of the agriculture scenario in general and crop pattern in particular, Jathedar Tota Singh said that Punjab has been contributing about 50% of wheat and 35% of rice procured by the GOI for food security of the country since last four decades. He also said that Punjab, being the Agrarian state has always been ahead of other states in matter of crop production and procurement. As a consequence of the initiatives taken by the state government, the State has been conferred with the first “Krishi Karman Award” for producing record 278.67 Lakh MT of food grains for the year 2010-11.
Fully aware of the difficulties being faced by the farming community in the state, the Punjab Government has reinstated free power supply for tube wells of the farmers. Apart from this compensation for loss due to natural calamities has been enhanced from Rs. 2000 to Rs. 5000 per acre. The Minister assured the farmers that the required quantity of Urea and DAP for Paddy has already there in the stock and there would be no shortage in the coming days.
Expressing concern over the central Government’s policies in deciding the frequent rise in the prices of inputs required for agriculture such as diesel, fertilizers as well as the MSP of the food grains putting the farmers of the state under undue financial stress, the Minister has urged the GOI to announce a special financial package for sustainability of agriculture in Punjab. He, however, said that Punjab fully endorsed Dr. Swaminathan’s report that MSP should provide the farmers a margin of 50% over the cost of production.
The Minister also said that the state Govt. was also apprehensive about the subsidy policy on fertilizers as GOI has changed it to Nutrient Based as a result of which the prices of all the fertilizers have shot-up and these are beyond the reach of the farmers. If these policies are not rolled back in favor of farmers of the state, the future Food Security of the country would be under great threat.
Adding further, the Minister said that the state has set-up Agriculture Machinery Service Centers in order to provide Modern Agriculture Machinery on custom hiring basis. This would reduce the extra expenditure on agriculture machinery as the farmers of the State can hire the required machinery from these centers at reasonable rent to minimize the cost of production.
Mr. G.S. Sandhu Financial Commissioner Development and Mr. M.S. Sandhu Director Agriculture also addressed the meeting.