Tata Trust adopts villages for groundnut farming

Ludhiana, Dec 11: The Sir Rattan Tata Trust, Mumbai in collaboration with Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has adopted five villages of Sangrur district of Punjab for groundnut cultivation.

While the Sir Rattan Tata Trust will provide the financial backing for the project, PAU will provide the expertese to the farmers on groundnut cultivation. This project has been undertaken to motivate the farmers to sow groundnut instead of paddy which is primarily responsible for lowering the groundwater table in Punjab and particularly in Sangrur district, where it is the lowest.

Groundnut, a viable alternative to paddy, was amply demonstrated by PAU's Directorate of Extension of Education which undertook cultivation of groundnut on 344 acres in Kharif-2006 in five villages of Wazirpur Badesha, Panjgarian and Tibba of Ahmedgarh and Majhi and Nagra of Bhawanigarh.

Director of Extension Education, Dr S S Gill, who presided over a field day on diversification in agriculture in Inna Bajwa village in Sangrur yesterday said the average per acre yield of groundnut was around 10 quintals. The varieties that were sown by the farmers under this project were SG-99, M-522 and SG-84.

Addressing the farmers and officials of the district administration looking after various development departments, Dr Gill said cultivation of groundnut involves low cost, as compared to paddy, and even in terms of irrigation, the water requirements were lesser than that of paddy. The Minimum Support Price offered for groundnut, which is Rs 1,520, was an incentive for the growers.

Experts from PAU educated the farmers on package of practices for cultivation of groundnut and protection against diseases, insects and pests.

The farmers were also impressed upon to plant at least five different fruit plants at their tube wells. Punjab has approximately 11.68 lakh tube wells.

This mass scale plantation of fruit trees will not only bring additional area, approximately five lakh acres, under fruit trees but would also change the environment of the state. Besides, it will provide nutrition to the farming families.

PAU Head of the Department of Entomology Dr N S Bhutter and several progressive farmers also spoke on the occasion.

UNI