‘Illegal sale of fruit plants need to be checked’

Agriculture experts called for dissuading the farmers from getting misguided by spurious seed manufacturers and companies, insisting that they (farmers) be impressed upon to purchase and adopt only Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) developed crop varieties and technologies, respectively.

This call was made during the 25th Extension Council meeting, held at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) today, wherein achievements and concerns pertaining to the transfer of technology were deliberated, among the gathering of representatives of the Departments of Agriculture and Horticulture, district extension specialists, field level functionaries and senior officials of the PAU. Further, members of the Council desired that the state government may be alerted against the illegal sale of fruit plants by private nurseries.

Chairing the meet, Dr Satbir Singh Gosal, Vice-Chancellor, PAU, underlined the need for evolving a standard aerial spray protocol for spraying insecticide, fungicide and herbicide using drone technology. He also urged the extension functionaries to guide the farmers regarding the adoption of soil test-based fertiliser application approach to ensure that the DAP and other fertilisers could be used judiciously in fields. Furthermore, the VC stressed on the promotion of oilseeds and pulses by establishing effective marketing and processing platforms in the state.

Sharing the details of the meet, Dr MS Bhullar, Director of Extension Education, said that the members of the Council lauded low cost surface seeding technology but suggested further refinement in the machinery for its large scale adoption. The also underscored the importance of advocating bio-control measures like Trichogramma and at farmer’s fields, including potato digger under Crop Residue Management machinery, carry out more works on marketing intelligence for accuracy in price forecasting and encourage farmers to grow tree plants on drip irrigation, he said.

Dr AS Dhatt, Director of Research, observed that the members took a special note of inefficiency of nano-fertilisers and increase in area under spring and summer maize cultivation, which needs to be discouraged at every cost for water conservation.

Dr GS Mangat, Additional Director of Research (Agriculture), highlighted the rising graph of PAU developed water saving, early maturing ‘PR’ varieties which have captured almost the entire state, breaking all the previous records and surpassing water-guzzling Pusa 44.

Ludhiana