MSP on moong welcome, but it's too late to sow crop now: Punjab farmers

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

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Jalandhar, May 8

The government’s decision to give the minimum support price on moong has been welcomed by farmers, but they say it is too late to sow the crop now.

Farmers said the right time to sow moong was from the last week of March to April.

Tarsem Singh, a resident of Uccha village in Jalandhar, said: “The sowing of moong at this time is risky. Moong requires less water. Even one rainfall can affect the yield.”

Sukhwant Singh, another farmer from Karnana village, said had the announcement been made earlier, many farmers would have sown it.

Moosapur village farmer Kirpal Singh said he had already sown moong in the last week of March. “Even before the announcement, I grew moong in some area. Other farmers are now planning to sow it next year, but not now,” he said.

An agriculture expert said pulses were nodular crop that help fix the nitrogen which makes the soil fertile. This crop form symbiotic relationship with the soil and it doesn’t need any fertiliser or nitrogen supplements.

Crop diversification is considered as one of the major solutions to save plummeting ground water in Punjab. But because of no MSP on other crops, the farmers were hesitant and unwilling to sow other crops.