In a bid to boost the much-needed crop diversification in the state, the Punjab government has chalked out a comprehensive plan to introduce olive cultivation in a big way.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked the state’s agriculture department to explore the feasibility of olive plantation on the basis of a pilot project, which is to cover an area of 10 hectares, with active involvement of the Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana, at a suitable site that has favourable climatic conditions.
He has also asked the financial commissioner for development to draft a policy to provide subsidies to farmers interested in olive cultivation.
Badal said that the concept of olive cultivation could be made popular amongst farmers by motivating them to pursue crop diversification programmes, besides ensuring return, as traditional agriculture was not a profitable venture anymore due to the squeezed margins on low and static minimum support prices.