•Project aims at producing export quality residue-free Basmati
•25K Hectares under Basmati crop in Chogawan block in Amritsar under this project, says Gurmeet Singh Khudian
Chandigarh, September 17:
In a bid to promote organic farming in the state as desired by the Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Singh Mann, Punjab Government has undertaken a pilot project under which residue-free basmati has been cultivated in Chogawan block of Amritsar district. Residue-free practices entail minimal or no usage of chemicals.
Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said that they have purposely chosen Chogawan block to carry out this pilot project due to this area being falls in the basin of Ravi River and having favourable climatic conditions to nurture the most aromatic long grain Basmati rice making it export quality produce.
“Basmati rice has a great export potential as most of the basmati produced in the region is being exported to the Arab, European and Middle-Eastern countries,” he said, while adding that presently, basmati rice has been exported to more than 60 countries, of which, Amritsar district alone exported Basmati rice around Rs 9000 crore during past year.
In order to increase the export potential of basmati rice from Punjab, S. Gurmeet Singh Khudian stated that Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare department has also launched a large scale awareness campaign to sensitise farmers about the judicious use of pesticides for basmati crop, besides, making them aware regarding use of alternative pesticides rather than banned pesticides. As many as 10 insecticides/fungicides have been banned for application on basmati crop, he added.
The Agriculture Minister said that Chogawan block has around a total area of 32000 hectares cultivated area, of which, 28753 hectares is covered under the paddy crop and 25000 hectares are solely under the basmati crop in the block. Out of the total 102 villages, 42 villages of the block have been selected under the project, he said.
Meanwhile, main cultivated varieties in the block are PUSA basmati 1718, PUSA basmati 1121, PUSA basmati 1885, PUSA basmati 1509, PUSA basmati 1692 and Punjab basmati-7.
