To encourage crop diversification, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann announces MSP on maize, pulses, bajra

PTI

Satoj, May 3

To encourage crop diversification in Punjab, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday announced that his government will provide minimum support price (MSP) on alternative crops such as maize, pulses and bajra.

Mann made the announcement during his interaction with farmers after kick starting the ambitious Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR) drive here. He also appealed to them to take up this technique to check the depleting groundwater table.

Launching the DSR drive from his native village Satoj, he exhorted local farmers to also take up this technique of paddy sowing in a big way.

The chief minister assured farmers that during the tenure of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the state, they will get superior quality fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides.

To encourage crop diversification in Punjab, Mann said that his government will provide MSP on alternative crops such as maize, pulses and bajra, and will sell the produce at its own responsibility, an official statement quoting him said.

"We may sell it to Singapore or Ukraine or any other place, but you will get MSP," the chief minister said.

On the power situation in the state, he said his government is going to resume mining of coal from Punjab's allotted mine in Jharkhand which has been shut since 2015.

Mann pointed out that with uninterrupted supply of coal, there will be normal supply of power for the agriculture, the domestic and the industrial sectors.

Expressing deep concern over fast depleting groundwater, Mann said it is the need of the hour to motivate farmers to switch over from traditional paddy transplantation to the advanced DSR technique.

Moreover, it is high time to adopt an alternative technique for paddy cultivation to save the much scarce and precious natural water resource, he said. The Punjab government on Saturday had announced financial assistance of Rs 1,500 per acre to farmers sowing paddy through the DSR technique to check depleting groundwater table.

"To promote the DSR technology, our government has also decided to provide financial assistance of Rs 1,500 per acre to farmers who adopt this water saving method of cultivating paddy," Mann said as he interacted with farmers of his village and listened to their suggestions.

Mann said that farmers of his native village will have to set an example for the entire state by sowing paddy with the DSR method on maximum area of land. Under the DSR technique, paddy seeds are drilled into the ground with the help of a machine that does seeding of rice and spraying of herbicide simultaneously.

According to the traditional method, first young paddy plants are raised by farmers in nurseries and then these plants are uprooted and transplanted in a puddled field.

On this occasion, Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, MLA Sunam Aman Arora, Deputy Commissioner, Sangrur, Jatinder Jorwal, SSP Mandeep Singh Sidhu besides Mann's mother were also present.