Go for direct sowing of paddy, farmers urged

Phagwara, May 30

Kapurthala Deputy Commissioner Captain Karnail Singh has given a call to farmers for direct sowing of paddy to save groundwater, besides ensuring their registration on the portal launched by the Punjab Government till June 25 to get the incentive for doing direct sowing.

During a meeting with the officials of the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department here today, he directed the departments to create awareness among farmers for the registration of farmers at each block level. Apart from this, technical guidance should also be provided to them for registration so that no farmer is deprived of financial incentive of Rs 1,500 an acre, he added.

Registration on agrimachinerypb.com is mandatory to avail the incentive on direct sowing of paddy. The registration can be done till June 25.

Stressing the need to encourage farmers to plant short maturing varieties of paddy, the Deputy Commissioner instructed officials to set up camps at the district, block and village levels. CAO Dr Balbir Chand said block and village-level farmer training camps are being organized in all blocks to fulfill the objective of bringing maximum area under direct sowing of paddy to maintain the groundwater level. ADO Dr Jaspal Singh Dhanju and Project Director Atma Tarvinder Singh were also present in the meeting.