The Hindu : New Delhi News : Include Punjab in wheat package: Minister

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Saturday, Jul 28, 2007
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Include Punjab in wheat package: Minister

Special Correspondent

S.S. Badal writes to Prime Minister for “inclusion of all districts in Wheat Enhancement Programme”

Wheat yield in Punjab has fallen by about 22 per cent over the last five years
Reversing the downward trend requires financial resources

CHANDIGARH: Worried that Punjab, the wheat bowl of the country, could dry up soon with declining yields and with the Union Government ignoring the State for its Rs. 25,000-crore Wheat Enhancement Programme, ruling Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pleading for “inclusion of all districts of Punjab in the programme”.

The letter written by Mr. Badal on July 23, copies of which were released to the media on Friday, is a sequel to his communication to the Prime Minister in May this year when he had pleaded for “Central assistance for making agriculture sustainable in Punjab for meeting the food security requirements of the country”.

In his latest letter, the youth leader has observed that “Punjab has acquired sufficient expertise and built a strong technological resource base in wheat production. Punjab contributes 60 per cent of wheat stock procured for the Central pool”.

However, the sustainability of wheat production in Punjab at the present level has become difficult due to “alarming depletion of micro-nutrients in the soil and continuous fall in ground water level”. The wheat yield in Punjab had fallen by about 22 per cent over the last five years, from 23 to 18 quintals per acre.

“Arresting and reversing the downward trend in wheat yields in Punjab requires financial resources that are beyond the reach of the state on its own," wrote the Akali leader, underscoring that a wheat package including seed replacement, incentives for micro-nutrients, gypsum and improved farm practices was being finalised by the Centre, which for unknown reasons did not include Punjab.

Mr. Badal has urged the Prime Minister that for “ensuring wheat self-sufficiency of the country and to avoid dependence on wheat imports the inclusion of all districts of Punjab in the proposed Wheat Enhancement Programme is absolutely necessary”.

Mr. Badal has sought personal support of the Prime Minister for “Special Financial Package for Punjab in sustaining and improving wheat yield and production as well as extend the proposed Wheat Enhancement Programme to all the Punjab districts”. He has argued that the country’s food security needs could not be achieved without sustaining wheat production in Punjab.

Copies of Mr. Badal’s letter have also been sent to the Union Minister of Agriculture, Food Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Sharad Pawar, and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, pointing out that "if this fast decline in wheat yield in Punjab was not arrested in time, the wheat sufficiency of the country could be seriously endangered".

How important Punjab is for food grain self-sufficiency could be understood from the fact that the State contributed 60.9 per cent wheat to the Central pool in 2005-06. This year against a target of 92 lakh tonnes, only 89 lakh tonnes were procured.

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