LUDHIANA, Sept 17: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal announced that the state government will sponsor regular visits of agriculture scientists and small farmers to advanced countries like Holland and Israel for acquiring new skills and techniques in horticulture and vegetable production.Addressing a huge gathering of farmers and farm women after inaugurating a state level "Kisan Mela" at the Punjab Agriculture University campus, here today, Badal said that this decision will help in bringing innovative changes in the field of agriculture and supplementing the income of the farming community.Badal said the profession of agriculture with its existing methods was no more a profitable venture and the shrinkage of land holdings had further reduced the income of farmers. The use of latest technology in the process of production and marketing was essential for competing in the world. He said, refresher training centres would be opened in each block, where farmers would be given training for adopting new scientific techonology in their fields.Exhorting farmers to change the cropping pattern and to go for diversification, Badal said that traditional crops like rice and wheat were no more in much demand, both in the national and the international markets. He said that there was a need to bring some area of land under vegetable and food cultivation, every year and divert the farming community towards allied activities like dairy, fisheries, poultry, and other self-employment ventures.Badal said the government planned to set up rural employment centres in each village by giving training facilities, infrastructural support and financial assistance to the unemployed youth and women. He said construction work on two demonstration centres, one at Kaljharani in Bathinda district and the other at Padhri Kalan in Amritsar district was in progress, adding that these projects would be commissioned on November 1. He said that all facilities would be made available to interested persons in these villages.He urged scientists to pay special attention to produce new seeds and high yielding varieties in vegetables and fruits. "Increase in agriculture production is important, but more important is to give attention to marketing and processing for value addition. We must bring awareness amongst farmers to start tiny units in their homes to prepare products from agriculture raw material and sell these as finished products. Such an approach will help in generating more income for the family and giving employment to persons of all ages".Badal urged the university to produce quality wheat seeds in government seed farms, so that the farmers could get good seeds in abundance. He said tthe Ladowal farm will be shortly handed over to PAU for its research and seed production work, as the Centre had already taken this decision.Agricultural Minister Gurdev Singh Badal said the farmers will now be the owners of some land on the sides of roads and rivers along with their fields.
