Chandigarh : With an aim to wean away the state farmers from the water-guzzling paddy crop to arrest the depleting groundwater as mandated by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare department has decided to provide incentive of Rs.17, 500 per hectare for encouraging farmers to shift to alternative crops.
Revealing this here today in a press communiqué, Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said that in this regard an amount of Rs. 289.87 crores has been allocated for FY 2024-25.
Giving breakups of the revamped Crop Diversification Programme (CDP) for replacing paddy, he said that under this program, any farmer can avail the benefits on maximum five hectares, and the incentive amount will be directly transferred to the bank account of beneficiary farmer via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in two equal instalments.
First instalment will be transferred immediately after verification through Digital Crop Survey and Krishi Mapper app, second instalment will be transferred immediately after the crop harvest.
Gurmeet Singh Khudian further stated that Punjab played crucial role in the green revolution which helped the nation to become independent in food security.Cultivation of paddy in Punjab leads to over-dependence on tubewell irrigation which resulted into depletion of groundwater.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government has decided to implement the revised CDP in all the Districts of Punjab and preference would be given to critical and over exploited blocks of the identified districts.
Special Chief Secretary Agriculture and Farmers Welfare KAP Sinha informed that GoI has launched a revamped Crop Diversification Programme (CDP)- to encourage farmers to diversify paddy to alternative crops during Kharif season 2024.
He said that Farmer can apply online on State portal to avail scheme benefits. For effective and smooth implementation of the program, a state and district level committees will be constituted in the state, he added.
