CHANDIGARH: In a bid to promote crop diversification in the state, Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department has distributed as many as 4500 mini-kits of Mustard seeds in four districts for Rabi season 2023-24. The area under this oilseed crop is likely to increase to around 4000 hectares this year.
Revealing this here today, Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Mr. Gurmeet Singh Khudian said that 90 quintals of RH-761 variety Mustard seeds have been made available to the farmers in Bathinda, Fazilka, Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur districts.
This initiative will further give impetus to the Punjab government’s crop diversification drive launched in the state as per the vision of Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Singh Mann, said the Agriculture Minister, while adding that the area under mustard crop is estimated to be around 49000 hectares this year as compared to 45000-hectares area under the oilseed crop in Rabi season 2022-23.
Notably, Punjab had witnessed at least a 20 per cent increase in the area under the Basmati cultivation this Kharif season with 5.96 lakh hectares under the aromatic crop, which was 4.94 lakh hectares last year.
Mr. Gurmeet Singh Khudian said that these mini-kits have been distributed to popularize newly released high-yielding varieties among farmers under the National Food Security Mission.