Diversification plan set to take off, finally

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 1

The Punjab Government has an ambitious plan for the diversification of agriculture. With the Finance Minister setting aside Rs 200 crore for the purpose, the government has proposed to diversify 3 lakh hectares area, currently under paddy cultivation.

The thrust, say officials, will be on promoting maize and basmati variety of crops, in place of water-guzzling paddy. Besides, the government is also promoting cultivation of cotton and pulses in southern part of the state.

“Our priority is to promote crop diversification and reduce the production cost, while trying to save as much of natural resources as possible,” says Sutantar Kumar Airi, Director, Agriculture. “Studies have shown that for every 100 litres of water that is recharged in the ground, the usage is 165 litres. At least 85 per cent of the usage is for irrigating paddy. The effort to wean farmers away from paddy will thus prevent desertification of the state, which is predicted in the next two decades,” he says.

The plan for 2020-21 is to increase the area under maize from 1.08 lakh hectares this year to 1.60 lakh hectares; of cotton from 2.68 lakh hectares to 4 lakh hectares; and of pulses from 4,000 hectares to 9,000 hectares. Besides, the government will be increasing the area under basmati from 5.11 lakh hectares this year to 6.29 lakh hectares in 2020-21.

When asked that earlier diversification plans had failed even though proposals were made for almost three decades, Airi refutes this, saying that in the ongoing year (2019-20), the department has already brought in almost 3 lakh hectare under different crops, from the paddy that was sown earlier. “It is for this reason that the Finance minister has granted a generous grant for crop diversification for the next financial year,” he says.