Sukhbir Singh Badal – President, Akali Dal:

• I request chief minister Capt Amarinder to introduce an incentive linked crop diversification plan on the pattern of Haryana by announcing an incentive of Rs 10,000 per acre to all farmers switching from paddy to other alternate crops, including maize.
• Punjab govt should announce that maize would be procured at MSP as has been done by Haryana to make diversification scheme a success.
• Both steps are urgently needed to address the issue of labour shortage during paddy transplantation as well as to tackle ground water depletion.
• To mitigate the suffering of vegetable farmers during this COVID19 crisis, the State should give direct compensation to them.
• Besides, the govt should also immediately raise the milk procurement prices to offset the losses faced by dairy farmers due to increased input costs.
  Pic Credit: SS Badal