CHANDIGARH: The Punjab agriculture Minister M r Dilbagh Singh, put a question mark on the completion of Satluj Yamuna Link canal on Thursday saying even the present needs of the state were not being adequately met,
Addressing a news conference here, Mr Dilbag Singh said the state needed more water for irrigation as only 40 per cent of the area presently was under canal irrigation, Replying to a question about the fate of Satluj-Yamuna Link canal which is to carry waters to Haryana, he said only the Haryana governments funds had been spent on the construction of this channel in Punjab territory.
Mr Amrik Singh Poomi, Financial Commissioner Development, who was also present, said the problem had become so acute that power connections to the tube wells were being given in only 27 out of 117 blocks in the state, He said it was not without reason that stress was being laid on water management. The state government has gone to the extent of stopping of watercourses some areas as the water table has gone down. He said the underground water sources had already been overexploited. Giving out details of the programme chalked out by the agriculture department, Mr Pooni said as part of diversification programme sunflower would be cultivated in 84,000 hectares and 4400 quintals of sunflower seed had already been distributed to the farmers, He ruled out any marketing problem for sunflower seeds for years to come. Faridkot and Ferozepur district are going ahead with sunflower cultivation. It has been decided to adopt 700 villages for the production of quality wheat seed. The agricultural development officers would select a seed plot of each farmer of that village. These seed plots would be harvested and threshed separately.” The department would select 47 villages for soil testing to ensure balanced use of fertilizers. One hundred and eighteen 18 villages would be adopted for increasing efficiency for tube wells and tractors. All the tube wells and tractors in these villages would be covered under this programme. A 100 acre demonstration on integrated pest management in each of the 25 cotton blocks would be laid out to decrease the use of pesticides.
New fertilizers testing laboratories with a capacity of 2000 samples per annum would be set up at Faridkot and Amritsar. One micronutrient testing laboratory would be setup at Sir Hind. This would be the first laboratory with annual capacity of 8,000samples would be set up at Gurdaspur
Paddy seeds for six lakh acres would be treated with pesticides for controlling seed-borne disease.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 27, 1992
