Fruit marketing scheme needs review
By Khushwant Ahluwalia
A farmer’s success lies in marketing his own crops of fresh fruit and vegetable. Creating infrastructure and offering potent policies to farmers to facilitate marketing is the only plausible answer to the otherwise plagued farming economy. But does the farmer enjoy sufficient incentives vis-a-vis infrastructure and economic packages to take this bold step?

Row over grass lease
By Peeyush Agnihotri
RED tape is choking the initiative of the farmers of Sukhomajri village, who had taken upon themselves the onerous task of improving the village economy without any help from government agencies.

Serving Punjab farmers for 50 years
By Paul Singh Sidhu

ON the completion of 50 years the College of Agriculture, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, is celebrating its golden jubilee on December 16 and 17, 1999. This premier constituent college of PAU made a humble beginning as Government Agricultural College, Ludhiana, in 1949 when the country was facing an acute food shortage. The mandate of the college was to make allout efforts for increasing food production in Punjab for providing food security to the nation, While celebrating the golden jubilee we can look back with some degree of genuine satisfaction about our past achievements.

History:

The college has its roots in Punjab Agricultural College and Research Institute, Lyallpur (now Faisalabad in Pakistan), established in 1906. It played an important role in the development of agriculture in West Punjab and suffered the shock of partition in 1947. People who dedicated their lives to this institute for decades had to leave, all of a sudden, penniless and frustrated.

It is tribute to the fortitude of Sardar Bahadur Lal Singh and his dedicated staff that classes for B.Sc (Agri) students, who had migrated from Lyallpur, commenced within four months in November, 1947, at Khalsa College, Amritsar. This temporary arrangement was not conducive to quality education and efforts were made to find a permanent home for this uprooted institute. The East Punjab Government approved the shifting of government Agricultural College to a part of the building of Malwa High School, Ludhiana, on March 31, 1449, and classes were started in September, 1949. Efforts of Sardar Bhadur Lal Singh, Director of Agriculture, Punjab, and Dr M.S. Randhawa, Director-General, Rehabilitation (Rural), resulted in the transfer of 500 acres of evacuee land in Haibowal village to the college in July, 1952, and the development work was immediately taken up.

Government Agricultural College, Ludhiana, shifted to its present site in 1957 and served as a nucleus for setting up of Punjab Agricultural University in 1962. On December 20, 1962, the faculty members and staff of the college were transferred from the Department of Agriculture to PAU. To begin with the existing sections of the Department of Agriculture were maintained as such but subsequently with the appointment of university professors and the establishment of the constituent colleges, these were re-designated as university departments in 1963. The heads of the departments were given greater financial and administrative powers than those enjoyed by the heads of the sections in the Department of Agriculture which was a very significant step in the rapid development of the college. The College of Agriculture now has 12 departments with a faculty strength of 483 supported by 1,043 laboratory and field staff. This is the biggest constituent college of PAU and accounts for about 40 per cent of the student strength and budget of the university.

Achievements:

During the 50 years of its existence at Ludhiana, the college has carved out a niche for itself as a result of the dedicated efforts of faculty and students in agricultural education, research, extension and development. A unique feature of the college from Lyallpur days has been integration of teaching, research and extension in agriculture and allied fields. The Scientists of the college have developed and popularised high-yielding varieties and continuously refined the complementary production-protection technologies for maximising agricultural production in Punjab and its surrounding areas.

The college offers BSc (Agri) hons B Ed programmes in addition to M Sc and Ph D programmes in 13 and 10 disciplines, respectively.

The faculty and graduates of the college have won numerous prestigious awards and honours in recognition of their outstanding contributions.

The College of Agriculture received the Best Institution award of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in 1977.

Tasks ahead:

While celebrating the golden jubilee of our alma mater we are not only basking in the glory of our past achievements but are fully conscious of the daunting challenges that lie ahead. In order to provide food security to the nation, Punjab agriculture has done remarkably well by exploiting the potentials of expansion in area; increase in productivity, cropping intensity and irrigation; intensive use of technical inputs; and simultaneous development of support services and public infrastructure which resulted in spectacular increase in foodgrain production. On an average, the Punjab farmers have attained 75 per cent of realisable potential yields of rice and wheat, which is a remarkable achievement indeed.

Although the agricultural sector in Punjab has done well, the condition of small and marginal farmers has deteriorated in recent years due to division of land holdings, increased cost of cultivation, over-exploitation of natural resources and appearance of new pests, diseases and weeds. In order to address the second generation green revolution problems and to ameliorate the economic condition of about 75 per cent of the Punjab farmers, who less than four ha of land, there is need to shift from high yielding to high-value crops. Alleviation of poverty, nutritional security and sustainability of natural resources are the new paradigms for providing quality life to the rural people, of Punjab. Relevance of agricultural technologies would henceforth be focused on needs of the different clients as well as their capabilities for understanding and assimilating the advanced technologies. Training and technical support has to be provided to the farmers to adopt new enterprises which require high degree of skill and knowledge. Diversification of agriculture from high yielding to high-value crops, promotion of subsidiary occupations, value addition and development of agro-industries in the state hold the key for providing livelihood security to our people. There is the need to develop and continuously refine cost-effective, globally competitive and eco-friendly technologies for diversifying Punjab agriculture by increasing vegetable, fruit and milk production, and for developing state-of-the-art technologies for processing agricultural, horticultural and livestock produce in the state.

Fruit marketing scheme needs review
By Khushwant Ahluwalia

A farmer’s success lies in marketing his own crops of fresh fruit and vegetable. Creating infrastructure and offering potent policies to farmers to facilitate marketing is the only plausible answer to the otherwise plagued farming economy. But does the farmer enjoy sufficient incentives vis-a-vis infrastructure and economic packages to take this bold step?

The Punjab Agri-Export Corporation (Pagrexco), in order to promote self-marketing in India amongst kinnow growers of the state, has prepared a programme of assistance and incentives. All farmers growing horticulture produce on their own land are eligible for the sop.

At the first stage a farmer is required to register himself with the Pagrexco as a grower by filling a form which is available at the PAIC office in Chandigarh. The PAIC charges Rs 1,000 per registration and the farmer is supposed to attach a "fard" of his land along with the form.

Once the formalities are completed, a grower is eligible to avail of the various benefits offered by the Pagrexco.

To start with there is a subsidy of 20 per cent on packaging material for kinnows which comes in the form of CFB cartons.

Pagrexco provides 20 per cent subsidy on inland haulage through reefer vans for despatch of kinnows to far-off markets in South India, but this facility is available only after March, 2000.

It also provides a 20 per cent subsidy on inland haulage on ordinary trucks destined to markets of Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Varanasi and Calcutta.

Waxing and grading of kinnows can be got done at 75 paise per kg, a subsidy of 50 paise per kg. The centres are located at Badal village in Muktsar district, Balluana in Abohar and Kangmai in Hoshiarpur district. These centres provide facilities for washing, waxing and grading of the fruit. The waxing capacity of these centres is five tonnes per hour and it can be increased according to the demand.

There is a subsidy of 50 per cent available on Pagrexco cold stores and kinnows can be stored @Rs 1 per kg for a period of one month instead of Rs 2. These pre-cooling centres-cum-cold stores of fruit and vegetables are situated at Badal village, Talwandi Saboo and Sunam, near Patiala.

Exporters can also avail of all these facilities, provided their business premises fall in Punjab and they procure the produce directly from the fruit growers of Punjab.

These schemes seem to be a step in the right direction but speaking from a farmer’s point of view, are these schemes dynamic enough to motivate the farming community to jump into marketing or they remain mere formalities on part of the government.

For example, initially the subsidy on packaging material was 50 per cent but was reduced to 20 per cent within a couple of years. Ironically subsidies are given to attract farmers, which can be withdrawn later once the objective is achieved but the Pagrexco thought otherwise. The rollback, some officials feel, was too early as a lot of aspirant farmers shied away from marketing kinnows as packaging material was too costly for their pockets.

Secondly, trucks from Punjab take seven days to reach Bangalore which is the prime market for kinnows. The incentive on reefer vans should be made available much before March-end because the temperature in South India starts rising by the end of February and there is every possibility of the fruit rotting during transit.

One rather fails to understand the rational of providing subsidy so late in the season as a majority of the farmers would have finished harvesting their kinnow orchards by March-end and in any case in March a farmer fetches a good price in North Indian markets. If the government is insistent on not offering subsidy on reefer vans before March next year then it should provide subsidy on cold stores in South India because farmers can then take a bulk of their produce during the cooler months and cold store it there for sale later.

Thirdly, the criterion chosen for setting up the waxing and grading centres defies logic as they are not located centrally. For example, the centre at Kangamai village is too north-west of the main city, Hoshiarpur. It should have been located more down south. The farmers of southern Hoshiarpur have to travel a great distance carrying their fruit for grading and waxing, thus wasting a lot of time.

It is time the government reckoned the importance of effectual and judicious planning and provided the farmers with incentives and subsidies.

Row over grass lease
By Peeyush Agnihotri

RED tape is choking the initiative of the farmers of Sukhomajri village, who had taken upon themselves the onerous task of improving the village economy without any help from government agencies.

It may be recalled that the village, which falls in Panchkula district, shot into fame in the early eighties when three earthen dams constructed by the ICAR transformed the socio-economic scenario of the village.

The high-feathered villagers had then formed a Hill Resource Management Society to manage the distribution of irrigation water, collection of revenue and generate income by leasing grass and selling products from the village common land.

Presently, the society derives income from the irrigation charges and lease of forest area for “bhabbar” (eulaliopsis binata) and forage grass and is earning a handsome profit each year.

The society started taking lease of forest land for grass cutting by making payments to the Department of Forests, Haryana, to further lease it out to villagers, thereby getting a net profit of Rs 20,000 per annum, besides earning Rs 2,000 from other sources like selling fish and irrigation water. This also entailed that illegal cutting of grass stopped as the members got the right to cut the grass from the forest area.

The grass yield increased from 25 quintals per year in 1988 to 240 quintals in 1994 and the milk production jumped from 250 litres to 1,500 litres per day. The foodgrain production, too, increased fourfold.

Today, though the profit graph continues to look skywards, yet the villagers feel downhearted and allege frequent meddling by Forest Department officials. “The government takes tax on the auction of grass. Further, every time we go to collect fodder, we are asked to take the permission of forest officials despite the area being leased out to us,” says an office-bearer of the society and adds that every year the lease reserve price is increased.

“If the villagers have some problem they should discuss it with the officials at the divisional level,” says Mr Banarsi Das, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Haryana. “Fodder grass is not taxable and we can issue a certificate to villagers in this regard, provided the grass is not sold further to paper mills or somewhere else. But the society members have never approached us,” he rues. We increase the lease reserve price every year by 7.5 per cent under the rules, keeping in view the rate of inflation, “ he adds.

Villagers, however, scoff at the explanation. “Lease price depends on the yearly yield of grass and is based on the rainfall received rather than inflation. Further, we cut the grass for our own consumption and do not sell it to mills and factories,” they say.

The revenue generated by the society is spent on common village welfare cause like building and maintaining schools and community centre. Entangling villagers in bureaucratic web would only mean nipping the very idea of farmer participatory management in the bud.

Pulses:

Give hoeing to gram and lentil to keep weeds under check. Give irrigation to the normal sown gram crop around mid-December and to lentil after about one month of sowing.

Oilseeds:

— The harvesting of toria should be completed to avoid losses owing to shattering.

— If the infestation of aphid is located in sarson and raya, then spray the crops with 350 ml of Metasystox 25 EC/Rogor 30 EC/Thiodan 35 EC or 100 ml of Dimecron in 100 litres of water per acre.

Sugarcane:

Save the crop from frost by applying irrigation around mid-December. Start crushing/harvesting (for mill purpose) early maturing varieties. Soon after the harvesting, burn the trash and irrigate the fields. When the soil attains the optimum moisture conditions, loosen it by interculture. Do not cover stubble with cane trash.

Celery:

Start transplanting celery seedlings 65-70 days old up to the end of December at a spacing of 45 x 25 cm. Apply light irrigation to the seed bed a day before uprooting the seedlings. Give a light irrigation after transplanting the seedlings. Apply 45 kg of urea and 35 kg of DAP at the time of sowing.

Fodder production:

— First cutting of early sown oats may be taken during this month to meet the fodder scarcity during this period. Avoid taking two cuttings from oats where heavy infestation of the poa is there.

— Lucerne cutting can be adjusted to provide fodder during the lean months.

Vegetables

Potato:

Towards mid-December, restrict irrigation and later withhold completely so that the haulms wilt and fall over before the aphid build-up. In the end of this month as soon as 20 aphid per 100 leaves build up, the haulms should be cut down. The crop should be left underground to allow the tubers to mature.

Onion:

Transplant 4-6 weeks old seedlings of onion in the field. The first week of December is the best time for transplanting. Large (10 to 15 cm) size and healthy seedlings give higher yields. Apply 20 tonnes well rotten farmyard manure together with 45 kg of urea, 125 kg of superphosphate and 35 kg of muriate of potash before transplanting. For the control of weeds, spray Stomp 30 EC @ 1.0 litre or Stomp 30 EC @ 750 ml/acre plus one hoeing. The herbicides should be applied within a week after transplanting or after first irrigation.

Tomato:

Complete transplanting of tomato seedlings in the first fortnight of this month. Provide sarkanda/kahi/rice straw to save the plants from frost. Dwarf tomato varieties can be saved from frost injury with 100 gauge thick white plastic bags of 35 x 25 cm size. Twentyfive kg bags are sufficient for an acre and these can be used for 2 to 3 years.

Radish, turnip and carrot:

Sowing of the European varieties of radish, turnip and carrot is to be completed in the first week of this month. Marketing of roots of Asiatic varieties is to be continued. Stackling of radish and turnip of full growth and at the peak of edible stage are to be transplanted for seed multiplication. Before transplanting, apply 25 kg of urea and 75 kg of superphosphate per acre. Keep lines 60 cm apart and plants at 45 cm.

Cauliflower:

For seed multiplication, select the most ideal heads of the main season varieties and rogue out loose, ricy, leafy and otherwise undesirable heads. In case seed multiplication is to be done on a small scale, transplant the selected heads along with root system intact at the desired place.

Pea:

Spray the crop with Indofil M 45 @ 400 g/acre in 200 litres of water by the end of December to control the rust. Leaf minor and aphid damage to the field pea can be checked by spraying 125 ml Dimecron 85 WSC or 400 ml Rogor 30 EC in 80 litres of water per acre.

— Progressive Farming, PAU