It’s a big challenge in Punjab to re-look at all the mechanisms available to move to non-chemical means of agriculture, which people here refuse to accept, food expert Devinder Sharma said on Friday. He was addressing a gathering from academic and research institutions of the country at the 3rd National Dialogue on Himalayan Ecology. Agriculture experts have gathered in Chandigarh to address the issue of imparting an economic cost to the ecological cost of agriculture produce. “In the next six to seven years all six million farmers in Andhra Pradesh will be converted to non-chemical farming. The fear is that productivity falls when you shift from chemical to non chemical means. But in Andhra, the productivity of all crops has gone up. Paddy output has gone up by 11 per cent and brinjal by 79 per cent,” said Sharma. Punjab Minister for Local Bodies Navjot Singh Sidhu said that he would apprise CM Amarinder Singh of the findings of the meeting.
