Ludhiana, May 1
Horticulture, particularly cultivation of vegetables, offers a ray of hope to enhance the incomes of small farmers and to pull them out of the quagmire of debt.
Though wheat and paddy give economic returns to the farmers and provide assured market and income, their salvation lies in taking up vegetable cultivation. For this, quality products, assured market and processing facilities are imperative.
Inaugurating the one-day horticultural officers' workshop here today, PAU Vice Chancellor K.S.Aulakh urged the participants to help the varsity popularise the concept of self sustaining two kanal organic nutritious kitchen garden. If each farmer were to develop a two kanal plot for pulses and vegetables, an additional 2.5 lakh acre will come under vegetable cultivation in the state, he pointed out.
The state Directorate of Horticulture should help to overcome the handicap of marketing and processing which did not allow vegetable cultivation to flourish and the National Horticulture Mission is an enabling instrument for this, he added.
"With India spending Rs.14,000 crore on importing pulses and edible oils last year, the farmers of the country must be helped to cut this heavy import bill by giving them remunerative price," he added.
To meet India's food security, the VC said it is important that nutritious security is made an integral part of the same. This security will come from fruits and vegetables whose area, production and per capita consumption is woefully either low or inadequate, as compared to developed countries. The concept of net house and green house for cultivation of vegetables should help, he added.
Director of Horticulture, Mr. Kulbir Singh, gave a bird's eye view of the status of fruits and vegetables in Punjab, which produced 7 lakh tonnes of fruits from 53,000 hectare and 30 lakh tonnes vegetables from 1.63 lakh hectare.
The endeavour of the department, as also of the Centre-sponsored National Horticulture Mission, is to increase the income of small farmers by encouraging them to take to vegetable cultivation. The varsity research should also focus on medicinal, aromatic and herbal plants. Concepts like tissue culture, hybridisation vermi compost etc. should find priority in the research.
Mr. Singh said PAU must also work on developing "market intelligence" and stressed on the need for affordable production and protection technologies, including drip and sprinkler irrigation systems and providing healthy nursery plants and vegetable seeds.
Director of Research, Dr.B.S.Dhillon, told the workshop that the recommendations of the University's Research Evaluation Committee in respect of a new variety of Brinjal will be put before the state variety approval committee after it has been discussed during the day.
Similarly, PAU has already put in the pipeline for adoptive research trials of a variety of cucumber, two varieties of turmeric and short-listed production and protection technologies in respect of kharif onion, seeding of cabbage, low tunnel cultivation of bell pepper and cucumber etc.
Director of Extension Education, Dr.S.S.Gill, said besides the three Chief Minister's awards given to progressive farmers at the kisan mela, the university has also instituted another award for progressive vegetable growers in the name of late Ujjagar Singh Dhaliwal. He said, "We learn many lessons from innovative farmers and try to improve upon them. These are vegetable growers who have invented small hand-tools to operate in vegetable gardens. We have asked our engineers to improve upon such implements and tools," he added.
