Punjab agri experts welcome water recharging proposal in Budget

Ludhiana, Mar 1 (UNI) The agri experts of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) have welcomed the proposal in the Union Budget to recharge 70 lakh tubewells in the country.

Reacting to the Budget, Dr A S Joshi, Head, Department of Economics at PAU said the recharging proposal would be immensely beneficial for Punjab, where groundwater level was going down every year to over exploitation. He welcomed the proposal of the Finance Minister to provide 100 per cent subsidy for this purpose to the small and marginal farmers and 50 per cent to other category of farmers.

Dr Joshi, a well knon agri economist also welcomed the proposal to start water training programmes by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) for which a sum of Rs 300 crore has been earmarked in the Budget.

He also welcomed the proposal for increase fertilizer subsidy and reduce import duty on edible oils. The reduction on custom duty on irrigation equipment was also a welcome proposal in the Budget, he added.

Regarding banning forward trading of wheat and rice to check the price rise, he said farmers would in no way benefit from this as a majority of them in the country are small and marginal.

He said the Budget would definitely got a long way in achieving the four per cent GDP growth in the agriculture sector in the 11th Five Year Plan to commence from April 1 this year He also welcomed the proposal to increase farm credit to Rs 2.25 lakh crore for the next year.

The proposal to start an integrated development programme on maize, pulses and oilseeds would encourage farmers to go in for diversification, he said adding that the seed development programme as mentioned in the Budget would definitely help improve the quality of seeds being made avaliable to the farmers.

UNI