Badal asks Centre to include state in food security mission

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Chandigarh, May 16: The Punjab government has asked the Centre to include the entire state in the National Food Security Mission (NFSM)-Rice to ensure better contribution to the Central Pool of food-grains on one hand and the long-term National Food Security due to improved ecological sustainability of agriculture production pattern in the state, on the other.

In a letter to the minister for agriculture Sharad Pawar, Punjab chief minister, Parkash Singh Badal mentioned that none of the districts had been included in the programme for implementation in Kharif-2008. Badal pointed out that the NFSM-Wheat was being implemented in 10 districts of the state for increasing the productivity and production of wheat.

The state had implemented this programme in right earnest, which had shown tangible results in NFSM districts and the same interventions have been made in other districts of the state as well though from its own resources.

Though there was contribution to the central pool from every nook and corner of the state, yet there still existed a gap in the potential yield

(ie, productivity achieved in the large scale scientific research trails) and the yield at farmer’s field, stated Badal.

Badal also referred to system of rice intensification (SRI) that had already been introduced in some districts of the state and the results were also very encouraging in terms of saving 30-35% of irrigation water and higher yield potential than the traditional method of planting paddy.

In case of paddy as well, there was an untapped potential and the state would strive to bridge this gap under