Provide cotton growers bollgard-III seeds: MLA to govt

Kaputhala MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh today made an appeal to the Centre and the Punjab Government to save cotton growers and help conserve environment by not letting area under the cash crop permanently shift to water-consuming paddy.

He appealed to both governments to release BT seeds of bollgard-III to farmers to fight pink bollworm which has eaten the crop in past few years. He welcomed the move by the state government to offer cotton growers 33 per cent subsidy on purchase of cotton seeds.

He, however, said, “We need more drastic steps to save crop which is called white gold and have turned the fortunes of the farmers especially in the Malwa belt of Punjab.”

The subsidy is offered on hybrid variety BT seeds and according to Rana Gurjeet Singh, BT hybrid seed is an obsolete variety which is not resistant to pink bollworm pest.

He said the area under the crop has been reduced to 98,000 hectares last year which touched 8 lakh hectares, 25 per cent of the total area under cultivation in a season. “We have to seriously think in the direction and give clearance to bollgard-III seeds to save the crops and state’s prosperity”, the legislator from Kapurthala said.

The clearance to the seeds is pending with the Central Seeds Committee and the trials are conducted by Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, for the second consecutive year.

MLA apprised that the bollgard-III seeds are in production in Australia and Brazil and farmers in those countries are reaping rich dividends. “Why farmers in India have to wait for so long for the seeds”, said Rana Gurjeet Singh.

He added farmers in the state are hard working and in southwest Punjab, cotton growers have mastered cotton production. “Let us not force the cotton growers to permanently shift to paddy”, he said, adding that there is an acute water scarcity in the district where cotton is grown and the cash crop is most suited for the local soil and climatic conditions. Rana Gurjit said the timely release of bollgard-III seeds will support farmers.

Jalandhar