www.retailindia.tv: Haryana, Punjab read pulse, to raise acreage

Monday, April 9, 2007

Haryana, Punjab read pulse, to raise acreage

HARYANA and Punjab have set record targets for pulses and oilseeds purchase in the kharif season. Both the states are targeting 30,000-40,000 hectare increase in acreage. Also, the presence of private players is likely to raise the minimum support price in the coming days. The Haryana agriculture department will target to bring almost 90, 000 hectares under pulses and 10,000 hectare under oilseeds in the 2007-08 season. Compared to it in the 2006-07, 56,000 hectares was under the pulses cultivation and 7,200 hectare under oilseeds. In Punjab, 55,000 hectare is projected to be under pulses and 25,500 under oilseed. In the previous figure the area under pulses was 22,900 hectare and 14,000 hectares under oilseed. In Punjab and Haryana, moong, urad and arhar (tur) were the main crops whereas groundnut, sesamum and castor oil were the kharif oilseeds. Both the governments have been working to increase the acreage under the kharif pulses and oilseeds which used to cover more than half the area under the total cultivated land in the early 60s. In Punjab, the production was likely to touch 42,000 mt in pulses and 17,000 in oilseeds. Speaking to ET, Haryana agriculture department additional director BS Duggal said: “The production of pulses is targeted to touch 72,000 million tonnes and 10,000 million tonnes in oilseeds. The Haryana Co-operative Supply and Marketing Federation (Hafed) is going to do contract farming of ‘summer moong dal’ in Karnal, Kaithal and Faridabad districts in 1,000 hectare.” In Punjab, Ratan Tata Trust in this kharif season would actively be working on 250-acre comprising of five villages in Hoshiarpur district and another 500 acre across 10 villages in the Sangrur district to grow groundnut. Sanjeev Nagpal, the man who experimented with the castor crop in his fields since 2002 would this year be adopting five villages in Fazilka where in 8% of 1,000-hectare area under cotton farmers would be growing castor seed . “Commercial production would start from next year,” Mr Nagpal said. Also as part of the integrated scheme of oilseed pulses, and maize, the farmers across Punjab and Haryana had been supplied mini kits varying from 2 kg (as in the case of castor seed) to 8kg kits (soyabean seed) to experiment on the fields. In 2006-07. “Increasing MSP of pulses and an expected increase by Rs 50-60 this season has led farmers to invest in pulses and oilseeds. We have seen a trend of farmers growing ‘moong dal’ after the wheat is harvested across Punjab, due to it taking two months to mature,” said an official of the Punjab agriculture department.