Punjab to provide Rs 1,500 aid to farmers opting for direct seeding of rice

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday announced that the state government will provide Rs 1,500 per acre as financial assistance to farmers opting for the direct seeding of rice (DSR) technique in the coming paddy season.

"To promote the DSR technology, our government has also decided to provide financial assistance of Rs 1,500 per acre to the farmers who adopt this water-saving method of cultivating paddy," CM Mann said kick-starting the ambitious drive, Direct Sowing of Rice (DSR), which promotes the cultivation of paddy by using a lesser amount of water from his native village Satauj.

Exhorting the farmers of his native village to go for this new technique of paddy sowing in a big way, the CM said that since the residents of Punjab have given a massive mandate to form the AAP government in the state and now it was our bounden duty to take path-breaking initiatives like DSR and several more for state's overall development and prosperity, for which people's wholehearted cooperation and support is immensely needed.

Expressing concern over depleting groundwater, Mann said it is the need of the hour to motivate our farmers to switch over from traditional paddy transplantation to the advanced technology of DSR. "Moreover, it is high time to adopt an alternate technique for paddy cultivation thus saving the much scarce and precious natural resource water as almost half of the land being cultivated by the farmers and they could play a pivotal role in this regard," added Mann.

Calling upon the farmers of Satauj, Mann said that they will have to set an example for the entire Punjab by sowing paddy with the DSR method on a maximum area of land.

To encourage crop diversification in Punjab, the CM said that their government will provide MSP on alternative crops including maize, pulses and bajra and will sell the products.

The CM also assured the farmers that during the tenure of their government, they will be getting superior quality fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides.

To ease the power supply situation in the state, Bhagwant Mann said that there will be no problem with electricity supply as their government is going to resume mining of coal from Punjab's allotted mine in Jharkhand which was shut since 2015.

He further pointed out that with an uninterrupted supply of coal, there will be a normal supply of power for agriculture, the domestic and industrial sector, as well.

( With inputs from ANI )

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