Contract farming: govt to shift 2.5 lakh hectares
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 3
The government was committed towards shifting 2.50 lakh acres from the present crops to maize, basmati, sunflower, sugarcane and pulses during this year and the contract farming, involving multi national companies, had also been introduced from the current financial year which would ensure the marketing of the produce at the previously-fixed minimum prices.

This was stated by Punjab Transport Minister Tej Parkash Singh, while addressing a largely attended district-level farmers’ training camps organised by the Agriculture Department here today.

He informed that under the new contract farming policy, 80,000 acres would be brought under the basmati cultivation, 1 lakh acres under maize and another 12,500 acres under sunflower farming. He said that with the cultivation of paddy in other parts of the country, the demand of the paddy produced by the state farmers had substantially reduced and the government was advising the farmers to adopt the new cash crops.

The minister said that last year, 25.44 lakh hectares were under paddy in the state which would be reduced to 22.75 lakh hectares during the coming paddy season. He further informed that the area under cotton was being enhanced from the last year’s 4.50 lakh hectares to 6.40 lakh hectares keeping in view the better marketing prospects of the crop.

He claimed that all arrangements for the required inputs, including fertilisers, seed and insecticides, had been made and the officers had been directed to make frequent checks to ensure the quality of inputs to the farmers.

During the this year, 1.23 lakh quintal of certified paddy seed would be provided to the farmers against last year’s 85,000 quintal. This year, 17, 800 quintal of maize seed, 88, 000 quintal of cotton and 1,500 quintal pulse seed had been arranged for the farmers. Spray pumps on 25 per cent subsidy would be given to the farmers in the state during the current financial year under the work-plan scheme of the government.

The minister exhorted the farmers to come forward to adopt the diversification scheme of the government to enhance their income from the agriculture.

Addressing the farmers, Dr R K Rampal, Director, Agriculture, informed that the department was making all efforts to properly educate the farmers about the new diversification of agriculture in the state by organizing farmers’ training camps in all districts.

Others who addressed the camp included Dr Rajinder Singh Pandher, CAO, Dr Balbir Singh, MD, Punseed, and Mr G S Rajajang, former CAO.

PAU sets new priorities in research
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, April 3
Punjab Agricultural University has decided to bring a significant change in setting new priorities in the areas of research and development.

Stating this, Dr K.S. Aulakh, Vice-Chancellor, said new thrust areas identified for research would focus on development of globally competitive, cost-effective and eco-friendly production technologies. These would include development of transgenic varieties of cotton and rice, gene pyramiding for incorporating stress tolerance in major crops, refinement of resource conservation technologies such as zero or minimum tillage and bed planting, development of crop hybrids and hybrid seed production, he said.

Dr Aulakh said reprioritisation had been finalised keeping in view the problems like dwindling farm size, increased cost of production, declining water table level, environmental pollution due to excessive use of chemicals and large scale burning of crop residues. He said effective management and mobilisation of resources had been ensured by reviewing staff strength and abolition of surplus posts, abolition of non-performing units, amalgamation of departments, prudent use of electricity and pooling of university vehicles.

Besides, the departments of animal breeding and genetics, horticulture, landscaping and floriculture, food science and technology and entomology had been asked to frame proposals for commercialisation of products under their purview to augment the internal resource generation in the university.

Lok Adalat for traffic challan on April 5
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 3
Mr Baldev Singh, District and Sessions Judge and Chairman of the District Legal Services Authority, has informed that a special Lok Adalat to clear the big backlog of more than 32,000 challans relating to Traffic Rules violations, the first of its kind in the district, will be organised on April 5, 2003 in the Sessions Court complex.

Giving details, the Judge said to clear the pending challans, 20 Lok Adalats would be held on the day and for this purpose eight judicial officers had been called from the other districts. He further said the Lok Adalats would be held under the supervision of Mr Justice H.S. Bedi, Executive Chairman, Punjab Legal Services Authority.

Any person whose challan was pending in any of the courts of the city could come and get it disposed of on the spot and get the impounded documents of the vehicle back.

Film TV academy starts branch
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, April 3
To launch its branch in the city, Indoscreen Film and Television Academy will soon organise a three-week acting workshop at City Walk here. Mr Raman Tondon, Managing Director of the academy, in a press statement today said , “The workshop has been organised so that the students appearing in exams in various fields can join it at their convenience. After the workshop, the branch will start operating with immediate effect”. The workshop will be conducted by directors from the National School of Drama, New Delhi.