Monster crop in comeback mode

Is this the beginning of the end of the grand diversification plans? Farmers in Punjab, the epicentre of the effort to break the wheat-paddy...

Is this the beginning of the end of the grand diversification plans? Farmers in Punjab, the epicentre of the effort to break the wheat-paddy stranglehold, are returning to the traditional crops following uncertainty over payments for 8216;new8217; crops.

According to unofficial sources, the area under wheat cultivation for the current season has gone up by as much as 100,000 hectares 8212; some 31,500,000 hectares is already under wheat 8212; and another 100,000 hectares is likely to be added to the count after the sugarcane harvest.

Agriculture department honchos refuse to acknowledge these statistics, pleading that since sugarcane is still being harvested while wheat has already been sown in certain areas, the result is unbalanced figures. Official releases, however, show that the area under sugarcane has gone down from 180,000 to 135,000 hectares.

According to sources, a major chunk of the 45,000 hectares freed up from sugarcane has gone under wheat, while the rest is covered by cotton crop. 8216;8216;The reason is simple. Till date, the state government owes sugarcane growers a sum of Rs 100 crore. No farmer would want to sow a crop for which payment is outstanding over one for which payment is assured,8217;8217; says Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union.

Adds union general secretary Manjit Singh Qadian, 8216;8216;Only the private sugar mills have paid farmers their dues, and even assured them next season8217;s money. Thus, while the private sugar mills will get their full quota of crops, the 14 cooperative sugar mills in the state will get half of what they want.8217;8217;

The popular grievances are not limited to the sugarcane crop. No part of the state has taken up either durum wheat or oilseeds, the other two totems of diversification.

Qadian pins the farmers8217; reluctance to dabble with these crops on their experience with basmati rice earlier this year. 8216;8216;The state government promised to pay its contract farmers Rs 1350 per quintal, but they went back on their word. Farmers had to go in for distress sales for as little as Rs 800 per quintal. So why should farmers experiment with the unfamiliar?8217;8217; he asks.

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With the state agriculture department providing no answers or assurances, the diversification drama seems to be rapidly inching towards a showdown. Farmers foresee an increase of area under wheat cultivation 8212; and all the attendant problems that triggered the government initiative. A vicious cycle like no other.