In an effort to provide assured marketing support to maize farmers under Punjab's crop diversification plan, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday announced to set up two cattle feed processing units costing Rs 5 crore each at Nawanshahr and Hoshiarpur, to be operated by Markfed and Milkfed.
Presiding over a meeting of chief agriculture officers of the state after launching the agriculture department's website here, Badal said the state government's efforts to boost agriculture diversification could fructify only with an assured marketing mechanism in place to benefit farmers.
With the aim of boosting the cultivation of sugarcane as an alternative to paddy under the crop diversification programme, Badal announced to make a budgetary provision of at least Rs 100-150 crore in the next annual budget to ensure marketing support to cane growers.
The chief minister asked the chief agriculture officers to motivate farmers through frequent seminars and camps to adopt alternative crops of maize, cotton, basmati and sugarcane, besides oilseeds such as soyabean, conola and hyola as these were not only less water-intensive but also highly remunerative.
He also underscored the need to promote beekeeping in a big way and asked the financial commissioner, development, to depute a dedicated officer not below the rank of joint director to formulate policies and programmes for incentivising beekeepers on the one hand and ensuring their economic stability on the other.
{{/usCountry}}He also underscored the need to promote beekeeping in a big way and asked the financial commissioner, development, to depute a dedicated officer not below the rank of joint director to formulate policies and programmes for incentivising beekeepers on the one hand and ensuring their economic stability on the other.
{{/usCountry}}He also asked the agriculture department to collect and compile entire data relating to beekeepers, who are mostly unorganised, in the form of a directory so as to enable the department to extend all benefits and facilities to them.
Badal also desired that the marketing of honey after proper and scientific processing should be done by Markfed, which already has a well-knit marketing network in the country.