Harvesting of parmal varieties almost over: Amritsar district agriculture officials

Amritsar, November 5

With the harvesting of paddy crop nearly over, the district has witnessed an arrival of 8.02 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of produce in the different grain markets. Of the total, 4.27 LMT comprises of basmati crop and 3.75 LMT of parmal varieties.

The district agriculture officials stated that harvesting of parmal varieties was almost over and only 288 MT of the produce arrived in markets on Saturday. However, the markets in district witnessed a total arrival of 5,482 MT of basmati varieties such as Basmati-1509 and Basmati-1718.

While the basmati varieties are solely procured by private buyers, their share in procurement of parmal varieties is merely 8,380 MT. Of the parmal variety procurement, Pungrain has procured a maximum of 1,27,963 MT, followed by Markfed (97,750 MT), Punsup (66,911 MT), Warehouse Corporation (48,925 MT) and Food Corporation of India (25,055 MT).

The district agriculture officials stated that sowing of wheat crop is going on at full pace and it is expected to be completed with next fortnight. Chief Agriculture Officer Jatinder Singh Gill said farmers weren’t facing any problem in getting seeds, fertilisers and chemicals required for wheat sowing.

He said farmers were also being trained to use newer techniques of wheat sowing with machines such as Happy Seeder and Super Seeder. He said farmers should also sow varieties recommended by the Agriculture Department and Punjab Agriculture University.