Area under green gram cultivation doubles in Punjab


PTI | Chandigarh | Updated: 15-05-2022 20:35 IST | Created: 15-05-2022 20:29 IST
Area under green gram cultivation doubles in Punjab
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Area under green gram (moong) cultivation has nearly doubled to 97,250 acres in Punjab this season after the state government assured the farmers of providing the minimum support price on the crop.

Farmers have resolutely responded to the assurance given by chief minister Bhagwant Mann to provide the Minimum Support Price (MSP) on moong crop, an official statement said here on Sunday.

At present, moong has been cultivated on around 97,250 acres (38,900 hectares) as compared to 50,000 acres during the last year, it said.

The MSP on moong is Rs 7,275 per quintal and this initiative will be instrumental to supplement farmer's income by sowing another crop between wheat-paddy cycle, both of which are water-guzzling crops, the statement said.

According to the state agriculture department data, Mansa district led the moon sowing with over 25,000 acres (10,000 hectares), which is 25 per cent of the total area sown under this crop in the state.

This was followed by Moga with over 12,750 acres (5,100 hectares) under moong cultivation and Ludhiana with 10,750 acres (4,300 hectares). The area under moong in Bathinda and Muktsar districts is 9,500 acres (3,800 hectares) and 8,750 acres (3,500 hectares), respectively.

Gurvinder Singh, director, agriculture department, said the moong crop has ''nitrogen-fixing nodules in the root zone of pulse crop'', which improves the fertility of land by fixing nitrogen in the soil.

Even if the yield of moong crop drops, the benefits of nitrogen fixation are available to the next crop. The consumption of urea fertiliser for the next crop reduced up to 25-30 kg per acre than the recommended dose, he said.

The state chief minister has already reiterated his government's commitment to purchase every grain of moong crop with a pre-condition that the farmers have to sow paddy variety PR-126, or basmati, in the same field after harvesting moong, as both these crops take far less time for maturity and require much less water as compared to other varieties of paddy.

Mann has appealed to the farmers to save water by adopting patterns of alternative crops.

To encourage farmers for adopting direct sowing of rice, the state has already announced financial assistance of Rs 1,500 per acre to them.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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