Chandigarh, July 3: Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has sought funds to the tune of Rs 198 crore from the state government to carry out research in the development of new varieties of alternative crops to facilitate successful implementation of crop diversification programme.
The agricultural university has sought setting up of 'Centre of Excellence for Crop Diversification' which will focus on developing new high yielding varieties of alternative crops including cotton, maize, pulses, fodder, basmati, sugarcane etc in order to replace water guzzling paddy crop, a PAU official said.
Research will also concentrate on developing other inputs like insecticides, pesticides in order to contain new pathogens and diseases which may come up with the sowing of new crops.
"We have sought Rs 198 crore for conducting research in developing new varieties of alternative crops for the replacement of paddy which is necessary for successful implementation of crop diversification programme initiated by the state government," PAU Director Research S S Gosal told PTI.
A proposal in this regard has been submitted to the Punjab government.
"By bringing more area under other crops, there is always a possibility of developing of new diseases and pathogens which have the potential to damage the crop. So we need such varieties which can withstand the attack of diseases," he said.
Punjab has cropping intensity of 188 per cent with wheat-paddy rotation.
The SAD-BJP led state government has been pushing for crop diversification in the wake of overexploitation of groundwater resources and depleting soil fertility with paddy sowing.
Punjab had sought over Rs 7,000 crore from the Centre to incentivise farmers to reduce paddy area from 28 lakh hectares to 16 lakh hectares in next six years.
The Centre has sanctioned Rs 224 crore to Punjab government for implementing crop diversification in the state.
