by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, Markets, News
By Saurabh Katkurwar,
Jalandhar : Even as a new harvesting season has begun, Punjab’s farmers are staring at bleak prospects with potato prices, that had hit rock-bottom last year, not showing signs of returning to previous levels.
About 10 per cent of the current season’s total harvest has been sold and the prices have stuck somewhere between Rs 150 and Rs 300 per quintal, according to the Punjab Horticulture Department. Farmers are apprehensive about the remuneration this year too, though the production is expected to be higher owing to favourable climatic conditions. About 80 per cent of the harvest in Punjab comes during the peak season of February and March.
Potato prices had slumped to just Rs 10 for a bag of 100 kg (one quintal) last year, leaving farmers in tears — and most of them chose to throw their produce on the roads to rot.
According to the Punjab government, production this year is expected to be over 2.5 million tonnes.
“If the weather is congenial and potato plants are not infected by the blight, overall yield will be good. Currently the rates are not good, I heard,” Gulab Singh Gill, Deputy Director (Horticulture) told IANS.
What concerns the farmers more is uncertainty over remunerative prices for their harvest when it hits the market during the peak season, said Gurinder Singh Kang, a potato grower from Jalandhar’s Lallian Kalan village.
“There is neither much fog nor initiation of blight disease. The climate is quite favorable for optimum output. However, there is an apprehension among farmers and traders whether they will get a fair price as current rates are at below Rs 3 for a kg,” Kang said.
Despite the fall in prices last year, land under potato cultivation has increased this year as farmers used a certain amount of the unsold crop for sowing.
“It is not just the decline in consumption or rise in production that led to the price drop, but several policy-related reasons such as demonetisation, high tax rate for cold storage, lack of export facilities are also responsible,” an official of the Jalandhar Potato Growers Association (JPCA) said.
“It is like multi-organ failure. After demonetisation, traders have become hesitant to procure any agricultural produce in excess. Earlier, we had to pay 14 per cent tax for cold storage but post-GST it has become 28 per cent,” said JPGA Secretary Jagat Gill Thamanwal.
“Also, there are no facilities for exports. Punjab is land-locked and exports to Pakistan are banned via the Wagah border. As the sea route is not cost-effective, our superior potato crop fails in the competition,” Thamanwal added.
Thus, farmers had thrown about 80 per cent of their crop on the roads due to the drastic fall in prices last year.
It is not just the potato growers who have been hurt but the vibrant seed industry has also been significantly impacted, claimed JPCA President Gururaj Nijjar.
“We fulfill almost 33 per cent of the country’s demand and we provide good quality seeds to other states. However, the seeds we produced were not sold this year. We could not even store them in cold storage as the seed’s life is just two months,” Nijjar said.
Potato seeds grown in the Doaba region — the land between the Sutlej and Ravi rivers — are in huge demand across the country for being disease-free and of superior quality.
Nijjar produced 15,000 bags (each 50 kg) of potato seeds in 2016-17 and Gill produced 35,000 bags.
Farmers in the region have sought government assistance, including a minimum support price (MSP), to bring them out of the financial distress.
Including potatoes in the MSP scheme is, however, not possible as it is a cash crop and prices will be decided by the markets, asserted a senior government official, who requested anonymity.
(Saurabh Katkurwar can be contacted at saurabh.k@ians.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, News, Politics, Technology
By Saurabh Katkurwar,
New Delhi : If the farmers of Punjab and Haryana were to adopt smart techniques and use appropriate machinery, say experts, they won’t hog the headlines every winter for the wrong reasons — causing smog in the national capital because of stubble-burning.
The Borlaug Institute of South Asia (BISA), a non-profit set up in 2011 to harness the latest technology in agriculture to improve farm productivity, has claimed to have reduced the volume of agricultural residue burning in some villages it has selected for smart farming in the last few years.
One of the successful examples is a cluster of villages in Haryana’s Karnal district, where stubble-burning has shrunk to just 20 per cent of the cultivated land, local farmers said.
Vikas Chaudhary, who cultivates 35 acres of land in Taraori, said this year paddy straw was burnt on just 400-500 acres of the total 2,400 acres of agricultural land in the village.
He said BISA has suggested an alternative in the form of a new machine — a Happy Seeder — which allows effective seeding without removing the straw residue.
Conceived by the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Happy Seeder is like any Zero Till Machine with the additional feature of a chopper that clears the loose straw which creates problems in sowing.
BISA is a collaborative effort involving the El Batan, Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR).
Earlier, farmers would cut the entire crop while reaping under conventional methods, leaving very little straw on the field.
However, the advent of combine harvesters — machines that combine the three separate operations of reaping, threshing and winnowing into one process — the magnitude of straw burning has increased since it cuts just the spike of paddy plants, leaving stems intact.
In the past few years, farmers have become accustomed to using Rotavators — soil tilling machine — before sowing seeds.
Since Rotavators cannot work unless the agriculture residue is cleared, farmers have no option but to set the stubble on fire as manual removal is not a viable option owing to the huge cost involved and small time window to cultivate winter crops such as wheat, said M.L. Jat, Principal Scientist with the CIMMYT.
“In our smart farming villages, we have introduced Happy Seeder machines which facilitate seed sowing though there is stubble in the field. It retains soil fertility as well,” Jat said.
“And the results are positive. Not just the output has remained unaffected, but input cost has gone down as well. We have found that stubble provided nutrients to soil, minimising the requirement of fertiliser.”
Manoj Munjal, who cultivates 125 acres of land in Taraori, said he has not burnt stubble on a single inch of his fields in last five-six years and that stubble-burning in the area can be reduced to zero if governments encourage the use of Happy Seeder by offering a huge subsidy.
There is one more cluster in Punjab’s Ludhiana district, where farmers have started taking steps to free their fields from burning.
Local farmers said they did not derive any pleasure from seeing the people of Delhi being choked up in smog but they did not have any other option.
“We are painted as villains for the pollution in Delhi. However, we also suffer due to stubble farming. Our village had almost become a gas chamber on November 14. But we are helpless,” said Jagdev Singh, a farmer from Nurpur village.
The Nurpur Bet Agriculture Multipurpose Cooperative Society provides agricultural machinery and equipment to farmers from six neighbouring villages as they cannot afford purchasing them.
Its Secretary, Balkir Singh, said the society owned one Happy Seeder, which was in demand by farmers.
“We charge Rs 1,100 per acre for the Happy Seeder. The demand is on the increase. This year we have witnessed almost 50 per cent reduction in stubble-burning,” Balkir Singh said.
He demanded that the government increase the subsidy on Happy Seeders to enable farmers to purchase them.
At present, a Happy Seeder costs Rs 1.5 lakh and the government gives a subsidy of Rs 50,000. But farmers find the amount to be very low.
“Capital expenditure of Rs 1 lakh is not possible for a farmer. So the subsidy amount should be increased to at least Rs 1 lakh. It will be a game-changer,” many farmers said in unison.
Balkan Singh, a farmer from Gazipur, gives a Happy Seeder on rent.
“I cultivate just 10 acres of land. So I rent out my Happy Seeder along with a tractor once I am done with sowing,” said Balkir Singh, who charges Rs 1,500 per acre.
In Taraori, wheat was sown on 700 acres of land using the Happy Seeder and on 100 acres by Zero Till Machines this year, which is higher than last year’s figure, locals said.
A part of Chaudhary’s farm is being used by the BISA for carrying out various experiments with new techniques for different crop patterns.
At least 10,000 people, including scientists from other countries, have visited my farm in the last six years, Chaudhary added.
The BISA has set up an experimental farm on 500 acres of land in Ludhiana’s Ladhowal along with the PAU.
“Here, we carry out different experiments with crops, such as use of fertiliser, amount of residue, irrigation pattern, which are aimed at increasing food production using less water and energy,” Jat said.
(Saurabh Katkurwar can be contacted at saurabh.k@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
New York : The Sikh Human Development Foundation (SHDF) has raised over $210,000 for underprivileged students pursuing higher education in Punjab during its latest fund drive, according to the organisation’s chairman, Gajinder Singh Ahuja.
The Washington-based foundation has since 2011 given over $2 million in scholarships based on merit and need to about 5,000 students in Punjab and neighbouring areas, Ahuja said on Friday.
About 2,700 scholarship recipients have already graduated and they include doctors, engineers and scientists, he added.A Some of them now work in the United States. Jasdeep Singh Juneja, who is an information technology professional in Dallas, Texas, said, “If there was no SHDF then I will not be in USA and I would have been lost in life.”
The SHDF programme is run in partnership with the New Delhi-based Nishkam Sikh Welfare Council, Ahuja said.
Chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education, Rajwant Singh said: “The supporters of this cause can be proud of the fact that they are holding the hands of the students who are dreaming to stand on their own feet.”
The lastest fundraising drive was launched last month at an event featuring Bollywood actor and Punjabi comedian, Gurpreet Ghuggi.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate Jobs, Employment, Government Jobs, Private Jobs
Chandigarh : The Punjab government has instructed all government departments/state-run undertakings and private organisations/businesses to notify every vacancy to the Employment Generation and Training Department, official sources said on Tuesday.
“This has been done to boost employment opportunities,” a government spokesperson said here.
He said as per Compulsory Notification of Vacancies Act of 1959, it was mandatory for all government/private establishments to notify such vacancies to Employment Exchanges across the state.
He said this practice was not followed religiously and most vacancies not notified to the employment exchanges.
“A Supreme Court judgment of 1996 made it compulsory for every vacancy to be simultaneously advertised in newspapers and notified to Employment Exchanges. Most employers began advertising in the print media, but stopped notifying the Employment Exchanges.
“Therefore, the state government has instructed all establishments in the government and private sectors to share information/advertisements of all jobs/vacancies in departments/organisations (contractual/outsourcing/regular) with the Joint Director in the office of Director, Employment Generation and Training.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
New Delhi : To test Punjab’s claims of having supported 21 farmers to manage stubble in a sustainable manner without burning, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday directed the state to bring these farmers before it on Friday.
Earlier this month, the Tribunal had rapped the Punjab government for not incentivising the farmers or assisting them to manage the crop residue, which is estimated to be around 35 million tonnes, and is currently being set ablaze by farmers to make up for the short window between winter and summer crops.
On Wednesday, as the government informed the Tribunal that it had been helping the farmers to manage the residue without burning and has adopted Kalar Majri village in Patiala district where it has also provided assistance to 21 farmers, the NGT said: “Present those 21 farmers that you claim to have supported and incentivise to mange the residue without burning. Bring them here on Friday.”
The bench headed by NGT chief, Justice Swatanter Kumar also heard from accounts of the state’s farmers who rebuffed the state government’s claims as mere eyewash and alleged that it was not doing anything to to help or carried out an awareness campaign against stubble burning.
The farmers from Bhartiya Kisan Union-Rajwal added that the government rather approached them in the first week of September – the harvest season, with “warnings and threats” and not assistance.
They also claimed that the operational cost of this is too high and the state government is neither providing them with machinery nor any other kind of assistance.
On Wednesday, over 100 farmers had gathered here outside NGT. They also rebuffed the claims that reverse ploughing to mix the residue with lower layer of soil helps in managing it, as the NGT had suggested.
“This creates fungus and some farmers who had earlier taken this step met losses as the production dropped,” Balbeer Singh Rajewal, Bharatiya Kisan Union-Rajewal president, who apprised the Tribunal about the farmers’ issues, told IANS.
He said that to manage the stubble per acre requires at least Rs 6,500, which includes diesel and labour cost, and expensive machinery is also needed.
“Farmers neither have that kind of money nor they have time. From the first week of November, wheat sowing will begin and by October mid, fields are to be prepared for sowing potato by some farmers.
“We had been asking the government that the stubble is ready, come and collect it. No one comes to collect it, they rather showed up as the harvest began and warned us with penalties,” Rajewal said.
The NGT had earlier fixed the environment penalty amount per incident of crop burning to be paid by small land owners having less than two acres of land at Rs 2,500, medium land owners holding over two acres and less than five acres at Rs 5,000 and those owning over five acres at Rs 15,000.
With stubble burning in neighbouring states having direct impact on Delhi’s air quality, which is currently deteriorating on daily basis, the NGT had in 2015 asked Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to curb this practice and later asked them to incentivise the small farmers to manage the stubble.
—IANS
