Amritsar district highest pear fruit producer in state

The pear fruit grown in the district has been given top recognition at the national level. The district has been covered under the Union Government sponsored PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PM FME Scheme) for producing pear fruit as the ‘One District One Product’ (ODOP). Officials of the Punjab Agro Industries Corporation (PAIC) say the PM FME is a Union Government sponsored five-year scheme launched in June this year. The scheme is funded by the Central and state governments in the ratio of 60:40. The scheme adopts ODOP approach to reap benefit of scale in terms of procurement of inputs, availing common facilities and marketing of products. The PAIC reviewed the production data of food grain and horticulture crops as well as production/processing of milk, poultry products etc of the last three years to select the district. The district is the largest producer of pear among all districts of the state. In 2018-19, the production of pear was over 23,104 metric tons and Patti is the cluster of pear production in the district. The fruits from here are supplied to Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Delhi and other cities of the countryFarmers in Patti sub-division of the district have started cultivating pear fruit, which are now supplied in different parts of the country. Earlier, the Patti sub-division was known for poultry products. With the passing of time and fall in demand of poultry products in couple of last years, the farmers have turned into pear fruit cultivation. The aim of the scheme is to enhance competitiveness of micro enterprises and to tap the potential of producer groups and cooperatives in supporting the up-gradation and formalisation of the unorganised/informal foods processing enterprises.

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Admn recognises progressive farmer Manjit Kaur

Manjit Kaur, a resident of Khadoor Sahib, has been given recognition by the district administration as a progressive farmer. She being adopter of ‘natural way of farming’ never uses fertilisers and tries to keep an ecosystem clean. She plows the land minimum and claims that organic farming systems are more profitable. Manjit Kaur was the regular invitee in the ‘kisan melas’ and other training functions to guide farmers for natural and organic farming. She had visited foreign countries to gather knowledge at the international level. Manjit was the holder of six acre agriculture land and was always of the views not to pollute the environment and it was this that she had never burn crop residue and mixes it in the fields. She not only grows traditional paddy, wheat crops but also grows vegetables, pulses etc. She provides eco-friendly material for bird shelters in her fields.

Online poster making contest held

The Education Department organised a district-level online poster making competition, results of which were declared recently. The competition was dedicated to the 400th birth anniversary of ninth Sikh Guru Teg Bahadur . In the secondary wing results, Sarabjit Kaur of Government Senior Secondary School, Mianwind, bagged the first position, while second and third positions were bagged by Gurpreet Singh of the GSSS Rataul and Ketan Sharma of the GHS Takhtu Chakk, respectively