Punjab, PAU officials chalk strategies to boost agriculture

During his maiden visit to the PAU, Punjab government’s department of agriculture and farmers’ welfare ACS Sarvjit Singh lauded the Malerkotla model in conversation to boost agriculture

During his maiden visit to the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Punjab government’s department of agriculture and farmers’ welfare additional chief secretary (ACS) Sarvjit Singh on Friday lauded the Malerkotla model during the long deliberations with the heads of various departments, with regard to steering the agricultural research towards diversification, income generation and sustainable practices.

Punjab department of agriculture and farmers’ welfare ACS Sarvjit Singh being welcomed by senior PAU officials during his visit to the campus in Ludhiana. (HT Photo)

While exemplifying the hugely successful Malerkotla vegetable farming model, Singh highlighted the need to infuse passion among farmers towards agricultural diversification.

Experts discussed various researches, extension and marketing options to further move the farmers away from the rice-wheat cropping system.

Department of economics and sociology head Kamal Vatta shared statistics of crop niche areas and problems faced in data collection, while department of agronomy head Makhan Singh Bhullar listed the benefits of direct seeded rice and the need to change farmers’ mindset towards the same.

Principal scientist at Agroforestry and School of Organic Farming Dr Rishi Indra Singh Gill and Charanjit Singh Aulakh highlighted the role of forestry in preventing the impact of climate change on agriculture and viability practices to popularise organic farming respectively..

Shifting focus to marketing, School of Business Studie head Ramandeep Singh Jassal shed light on agricultural entrepreneurship, role of agri-start ups and development of fool-proof marketing systems in agriculture.

Sarvjit Singh and his team also visited the skill development centre where Tejinder Singh Riar, additional director communication briefed about how the centre has successfully imparted skills to budding entrepreneurs for putting their ideas into action and helping them with resources to set up and expand business.

The team also took a round of the food incubation centre, where they were briefed by department of food science and technology head Poonam Sachdev, .

PAU registrar Shammi Kapoor, secretary agriculture Dilraj Singh, chief conservator (soils) Mohinder Singh Saini, director of agriculture Gurvinder Singh, Punjab Agro MD Manjit Singh Brar, director of Research Ajmer Singh Dhatt and director extension Ashok Kumar also attended the meeting.