In a bid to promote crop diversification, Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday announced to extend the 75% maize seed subsidy to farmers in the entire state during the 2014 kharif season.
The subsidy was initially approved for 10 of the 22 districts Barnala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Moga, SAS Nagar, Patiala, Rupnagar and Sangrur under the pilot project,
Badal also directed the agriculture department to ensure the installation of two community maize dryers at Nawanshahr and Saila Khurd (Hoshiarpur) at a cost of Rs 16 crore. The maize dryers would also be installed in other mandis at a cost of Rs 150 crore in a phased manner, a spokesman said.
The maize growers would also be given 50% subsidy on the purchase of portable maize dryers.