Chandigarh, January 28 – The Union Government’s wrong policies Demonetisation, GST and CAA has badly effected Integrated Farming due to which the integrated farmers are suffering huge losses. the Rural Development and Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries Minister, Punjab Mr. Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa said this while addressing a one day conference here today on the ‘Integrated Farming’ organised by the Livelihood Forum-2020 of FICCI and NABARD. The Minister said that despite of all these problems and the failures,the need of the hour is to develop, strengthen and promote Integrated Farming to save small and marginalized farmers.
The minister also stressed on the need for International open market for the success of Integrated farming.The Farmers should be allowed to sell their products in the International market without any restrictions.
Mr. Bajwa further said that practical problems of farmers must be addressed while framing Integrated farming polices. The polices should be jointly framed by the all concerned departments which includes Agriculture, Dairy, Animal Husbandry, Horticulture and even the research institutes such as universities considering all the aspects of success and failures. He said that the cost of production is the most important for the success of Integrated farming which should be kept in mind while framing and implementing policies. The policy makers and the government should ensure that integrated farmers are equipped with modern technologies on reasonable rates and supply of quality products to end users.He also called for filling sale gap of farmers products to the end users to make Integrated farming profitable.
Touching another important present day aspect the fertility of soil, the minister said that services of sterlisation of land and soil test at the doorsteps of the farmers should be provided on very low cost. He said that the sterlisation increases the productivity, but the NABARD and other organisations should come forward to provide assistance for this service as the farmers alone cannot bear this heavy burden of cost. The minister also said that the NABARD should also bear the burden of losses such as death of Animals or damage of crops due to natural calamities or any disease.
The Minister further said that land of Punjab is turning into a barren due to excessive use of chemical fertilizers, groundwater depletion and these have further caused more problems for farmers.Therefore, Punjab should start developing technologies for rainwater harvesting and stop wastage of water.
Other prominent who shared their views on the occasion included Mr. Raj Kamal Choudhary, Secretary Department of Animal Husbandry, Punjab, Dr. Dinesh Chauhan, Director, Indigram Group, Dr. Balwinder Singh Sidhu Commissioner, Agriculture-Punjab, Mr. JPS Bindra Chief General Manager, NABARD and Mr. GB Singh Regional Head FICCI.
