CHANDIGARH: In a major breakthrough, the Tandrust Punjab Mission has successfully managed to curtail the unwanted usage of agro chemicals in the State, resulting in a savings worth Rs. 355 crore on the farming input costs, informed KS Pannu, Director Tandrust Punjab Mission.
Giving details, Pannu informed that the average consumption of pesticides during Kharif 2018 has been 3838 MT Technical Grade which costs over Rs. 2000 crore. However, during Kharif 2019 there has been on an average 35% reduction in usage of insecticides/pesticides. It includes reduction in use of weedicide and fungicide. However, decrease in pesticide usage alone is about 18% which amounts to nearly 675 MT technical grade.
This sizable reduction in consumption of insecticides/ pesticides has lead to saving of Rs. 355 crore at the level of farmers, said he. Crediting the achievement to sustained awareness campaign under Tandrust Mission Punjab, launched by Capt. Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister Punjab, he informed that numerous awareness camps/seminars/workshops have been organized in every nook and corner of the State by the officers of Agriculture Department, to sensitize the farmers to check the unwanted usage of pesticides.
Pertinently, cotton and basmati rice crops are the main areas where attention was focussed for reducing the usage of pesticides, said he and added that a special campaign was launched to ensure the availability of only the high quality chemicals to the farmers. Besides, vigorous checking and sampling of agro chemicals was done to weed out substandard and spurious products, said he. The Director Tandrust Punjab Mission said that reduction in the use of urea by about 2 lac tonnes in Kharif 2019 has also considerably helped to prevent the spread of insects which in turn lead to curtailing the usage of insecticides.