New Delhi, July 16
Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have been declared the joint winners of the “Krishi Karman award” in the category of states with overall foodgrain production of more than 10 million tonne recorded in the last five years.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presented the award to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at an ICAR function here today. The award comprises a plaque, a citation and a cash prize of Rs 2 crore. UP was represented at the function by its Agriculture Minister.

The award has been given to the Punjab Government for effectively promoting agricultural technologies and services adopted by farmers that resulted in significant production gains.

The major initiatives of the state government , which contributed toward this significant feat, include conservation of irrigation water through active promotion of laser land-levelling and zero tillage, setting up agricultural machinery service centers on a massive scale involving private and public sector, improvement in seed replacement rate with assured seed treatment and control of yellow rust disease of wheat. The enactment of the Punjab preservation of Sub-soil Water Act, 2009 to ensure timely transplantation of paddy and public private partnership in agriculture extension were the other important steps undertaken by the state government.

In the second category of four awards given for individual crops and crop groups, the award for rice went to Chhattisgarh, wheat to Haryana, pulses to Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and coarse cereals to Karnataka. Each state received a trophy, a citation and cash award of Rs 1 crore.

Chief Ministers of Haryana, Rajasthan, Assam and Chhattisgarh were present to receive the Krishi Karman awards, while Odisha, Tripura, Maharashtra and Karnataka were represented by their agriculture ministers.

Assam and Odisha got the award in the category of states with overall food grain production of between one and 10 million tonne.