Increasing the area of millets in Punjab is a serious challenge
13-Aug-2024 03:26 PM
Chandigarh. Although there has been a good increase in the production area of food grain crops in Punjab during the last three years, the farmers of the state are running away from the cultivation of millets.
As a result, the area of millets in the state is stuck at just 0.01 percent of the gross area of food grain crops.
During the 2021-22 season, the total production area of food grain crops in Punjab was 66.68 lakh hectares, which increased to 68.19 lakh hectares in 2023-24. But during the same period, the sowing area of millets decreased from 12 thousand hectares to 7 thousand hectares.
It is worth noting that the Central and State Government are giving a lot of incentives to the farmers to increase the area and production of millets.
The year 2023 was celebrated globally as the 'International Year of Millets', which was initiated by India itself.
It is noteworthy that the focus of the farmers of Punjab is mainly on the cultivation of paddy and wheat because the Central Government certainly purchases its entire surplus quantity from the farmers at the minimum support price but does not pay much attention to the purchase of other crops.
The open market price of coarse grains including pulses, oilseeds and millets keeps fluctuating, so farmers often suffer financial losses, due to which their enthusiasm and attraction towards its cultivation remains very low.
Punjab is heading towards a serious water crisis, but still the farmers there do not want to give up paddy cultivation because there is a guarantee of a fixed price on it.
If farmers are to be motivated, encouraged and persuaded to increase the production of millets, then they will have to be convinced that its production will prove to be more profitable for them than paddy.
In Punjab's neighboring state Haryana, the area of millets has increased in the last three years, but this increase has been limited.
According to official data, the area under millets production in Haryana improved from 5.06 lakh hectares in the 2021-22 season to 5.46 lakh hectares in the 2023-24 season, while in Himachal Pradesh it fell from 3380 hectares to 3000 hectares.
Increasing the area under millets in Punjab is a serious challenge for the government and to face it, there is a need to implement a concrete, precise, timely and practical policy that would be able to attract farmers.