Pvt firms slipped on contract farming, says Punjab minister

Alleging that big companies had failed to yield desired results of diversification through contract farming, Punjab Co-operation Minister Captain Kanwaljit Singh said the state government had decided to enter contract farming to make diversification successful. And, as a pilot project, basmati and potato had been selected for the purpose.

"It has been noticed that private companies promoted by the state government for contract farming have not been able to serve the purpose. Their main purpose was to earn profit and if they often breached contracts by refusing to buy back the crop as promised," the minister said.

He said it was time to diversify from wheat and paddy, and now the state government would take up the task on its own.

Earlier, a big private company had entered contract farming in tomatoes in Hoshiarpur district but it abandoned the project, breaching the agreement. Similarly, a big industrial house too backtracked from buying baby corn, for which they had entered into a contract with farmers in Jalandhar district, the minister said.

Under its contract farming project, the state government would promote the cultivation of vegetables, and even promise the farmers competitive global rates for their crops by exploring domestic and international markets of their produce, he added.

He said as part of diversification, Markfed had indulged into a sort of contract farming of potatoes with the farmers of Jalandhar and initially around 50 farmers were enrolled for the certification of their crop according to the European standards.

Initially, about 1,000 tonnes of potatoes would be exported to the European countries, the minister said adding that in the first week of the next month he will hold a meeting with the Potato Growers Association to chalk out further strategy for exporting the crop to other countries too. He said agriculture in the state was facing acute financial crises due to the faulty policies of the Centre.

Although the agri-business in the state was about Rs 35,000 crore, still the farming sector was facing loss of about Rs 1,500 crore.