Government to incentivise crop diversification: Sangrur DC
The state government will incentivise farmers to adopt new technologies and crop diversification schemes by reducing the area under paddy and wheat, said Sangrur deputy commissioner (DC) Arshbir Singh Thind on Thursday.
The state government will incentivise farmers to adopt new technologies and crop diversification schemes by reducing the area under paddy and wheat, said Sangrur deputy commissioner (DC) Arshbir Singh Thind on Thursday.
"Farmers will be encouraged to grow crops which require less water, such as corn, oil seeds and pulses crops seeds and use new farming tools, which will be provided to farmers at subsidised rates," Thind said
DC said that ground water level was depleting and to save water, crop diversification was the need of the time and added that the wheat and paddy crop cycle had deteriorated the fertility. He urged farmers to start crop diversification and adopt new technologies to save water and soil fertility.
Meanwhile, agriculture officer of Sunam, Varinder Singh said, "Farmers of Sangrur district were regularly educated about new technologies and crop diversification."
Singh said that in order to earn more profit farmers should use the Neomatic Plantar to sow maize. He said 80,000 saplings of maize per hectare are sufficient to get good yield with the help of the Planter Neomatic and farmers can save themselves from labour problem.
The government is providing a subsidy of Rs 50,000 on the planter.
Horticulture department to give 50% subsidy on crates
T o motivate the farmers to market fruits and vegetables the state government will provide crates at 50% subsidy, said Thind.
Thind said the department of horticulture's under the National Agriculture Development Plan will provide subsidies to farmers for the marketing their produce so that they can get a better margin.
Under this scheme district fruit and vegetable producers will be provided 7,000 new crates in 2015 at Rs 140 per crate instead of the market price of Rs 280.
"The new crates are less liable to damage therefore farmers can send their produce to distant places. A farmer can now receive more than the 100 crates, which was the limit earlier," Thind added.
The farmers can apply at horticulture department offices in Ahmedgarh, Malerkotla, Dhuri, Sangrur and Sunam to avail the crates.
The district has 1,650 hectares of land under floriculture and around 7,000 hectares under vegetable cultivation.