DW BUREAU / CHANDIGARH

Farmers in Punjab will get an incentive of Rs 17,500 per hectare for shifting from the water-guzzling paddy crop to alternative crops under the crop diversification programme, state agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said on Saturday.

Sharing details of the revamped crop diversification programme (CDP) for replacing paddy with alternative crops, Khudian said that any farmer can avail of benefits over a maximum of five hectares of land, and the incentive amount will be directly transferred to the bank account of the beneficiary farmer via direct benefit transfer (DBT) in two equal instalments.

The first instalment will be transferred immediately after verification through the digital crop survey and Krishi Mapper app, and the second instalment will be transferred immediately after the crop harvest, he said in a statement here.

The Center and the Punjab government will jointly fund this programme in a 60:40 (Centre: State) ratio. Khudian said his department has decided to provide an incentive of Rs 17,500 per hectare to encourage farmers to shift to alternative crops. In this regard, an amount of Rs 289.87 crore has been allocated for the financial year 2024-25, he added. Khudian further stated that Punjab played a crucial role in the green revolution which helped the nation to become independent in food security.

Cultivation of paddy in Punjab has led to over-dependence on tubewell for irrigation which resulted in depletion of groundwater.

The Punjab government has decided to implement the crop diversification programme in all the districts of Punjab and preference will be given to critical and over-exploited blocks of the identified districts, he said.

Special Chief Secretary Agriculture and Farmers Welfare KAP Sinha informed that the Center has launched the revamped Crop Diversification Programme (CDP)- to encourage farmers to diversify paddy to alternative crops during the Kharif season 2024.

Farmers can apply online on the state portal to avail of the scheme. For effective and smooth implementation of the programme, state and district-level committees will be constituted, he added.
(editor@dailyworld.in)