On one hand, the ground water is getting depleted due to the paddy crop, on the other hand, burning of stubble after harvesting causes a lot of damage to the environment. The government keeps announcing new measures to keep the farmers away from the paddy crop which is proving to be fatal for the earth and sky. In this regard, now the Punjab government has announced incentives for farmers who grow other crops instead of paddy.
Punjab Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian said that under the crop diversification programme, Punjab farmers will be given an incentive of Rs 17,500 per hectare for planting any other crop instead of the water-intensive paddy crop.
Regarding the revised Crop Diversification Programme (CDP) to cultivate alternative crops in place of paddy, the Agriculture Minister said that any farmer can avail the benefit on a maximum of five hectares of land and the incentive amount will be transferred directly to the farmer’s bank account through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in two equal installments.
He said that the first installment will be transferred immediately after verification through digital crop survey and Krishi Mapper app and the second installment will be sent immediately after harvesting the crop.
The Central and Punjab governments will jointly provide financial assistance for this program in the ratio of 60:40.
roaster for paddy
Let us tell you that this time the Punjab government had issued a new roster for sowing paddy. According to this, farmers started sowing under Direct Sowing System-DSR from May 15. Last year it was May 20. Under the new roster, the state was divided into two zones for sowing paddy. In most of the districts, June 11 was fixed as the date for transplanting paddy. There electricity was supplied for 8 hours. These included Muktsar Sahib, Faridkot, Mansa, Bathinda, Fazilka, Ferozepur districts of Malwa. In the remaining districts, June 15 was fixed as the date for transplanting paddy.
Tags: Agriculture, Farmer’s income doubled, Paddy crop, punjab news
FIRST PUBLISHED : July 20, 2024, 23:38 IST