Punjab Bhagwant Maan Sarkar is doing a lot of work for increasing the income of farmers and development of agriculture sector in the state. Maan Sarkar has started several initiatives in the state. These include the highest sugarcane rate, subsidy on hybrid maize seeds, financial assistance for paddy direct sowing (DSR), free electricity to farmers for agricultural pumps and encouraged farmers to adopt crop diversification. The Punjab government is paying the highest price of Rs 401 per quintal to the farmers for sugarcane. The state government had also paid cooperative sugar mills for crushing 2023-24 on time. With these steps, the area of sugarcane crop has increased by 5000 hectares during the year 2024-25.
Financial assistance on adopting DSR technology
The Punjab government is providing financial assistance of Rs 1500 per acre to farmers adopting direct paddy sowing (DSR) technology to prevent declining ground water. This initiative of the government has received good response from farmers. During the Kharif season 2024, a total of 2.53 lakh acres were cultivated under DSR. Whereas during the Kharif season 2023, 1.70 lakh acres were cultivated. In this way, there has been a growth of 48.8% in 2024. The Agriculture Department of Punjab provided financial assistance of Rs 20.05 crore to 17,112 farmers during 2023.
Free electricity for tubewells
The Punjab government is providing free electricity facility to farmers for their tubewells. In the year 2024-25, Rs 9331 crore has been allocated for this. The Punjab government’s crop diversification campaign has also received a major encouragement. In Punjab, the area of basmati cultivation has seen an increase of at least 14 percent. Basmati was sown in 6.80 lakh hectare during the Kharif season, which was 5.96 lakh hectares in the year 2023. Apart from this, a Basmati Extension-Rest Center and a Testing Lab are being set up in collaboration with Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA). This will boost Punjab’s basmati exports.
Subsidy on hybrid varieties of maize
The Punjab government is giving subsidy of Rs 100 per kg on seeds of hybrid varieties certified and recommended by PAU, Ludhiana. For this, the state government had allocated Rs 2.30 crore. Apart from this, maize exhibitions were also installed in an area of 3500 hectares in the state. In these, farmers were given maize seeds, fertilizers and pesticides etc. at the rate of Rs 6000 per hectare. The state government has provided 80 percent subsidy to farmer groups for crop residue management (CRM) machines and 50 percent subsidy to individual farmers. A total of 16,000 machines were provided for stubble management during FY 2024-25. This has reduced the incidence of paddy straw burning.
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