Punjab Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today announced the government would launch a joint project with Nuziveedu Seeds to promote direct seeding of paddy in all blocks of the State next year.The Deputy CM discussed this issue in depth with the management of Nuziveedu Seeds including its Chairman Prabhakar Rao and decided to initiate a programme in league with the company on five acres of land in all blocks of the State next year. "Once this technique is successfully demonstrated in the field we can initiate the process of popularising it among the farmers", Mr Badal said.
Earlier Rao of Nuziveedu presented a comparative study of direct sowing method of paddy vis a vis the traditional transplantation method. He said with the right seed and agronomy practices the yields could be similar in both methods.Following the presentation, Mr Badal said the direct sowing method could be a "game changer" for Punjab and committed that the government would provide all possible help to the company and farmers to make it successful. He said this method of paddy sowing could help to reduce the requirement of water and arrest falls in the State's water table. He said consequently the power requirement of the State during the paddy season would also reduce.
Meanwhile Nuziveedu Seeds also advocated high density cotton plantation and adoption of dwarf varieties of cotton to increase cotton yields. The Deputy CM assured the company all help in this regard and also asked it to develop cotton harvesting and planting machinery in collaboration with PAU, Ludhiana to which the company agreed.In another meeting as part of the investment promotion tour which ended today, Mr Badal also met GVK group Chairman GVK Reddy who briefed him on the company's bio sciences achievements including how it had been able to translate from incubation to manufacturing at the Genome Valley life sciences park.
The Deputy CM requested the GVK group to invest in the Biotech park coming up in Mohali saying the city had the right mix of human resources as well as eleven premium institutions in its vicinity. "Mohali has the capacity to emerge as a bio sciences destination with premium institutions like IISER, NIPER, NABI, INST, IIT Ropar, ISB, Panjab University and PGIMER situated close to it",Badal said.The GVK group Chairman disclosed his company has had a very good experience while setting up business in Punjab and that he would prioritise further expansions in the State.Others present on the occasion included Mr Utkarsh Pal Nitkar of KPMG, senior officers including Mr Anirudh Tewari, Mr Karan Avtar Singh, Mr D K Tewari and Mr Manvesh Sidhu besides Media Advisor to the Deputy CM - Jangveer Singh.