"The contribution of agriculture in the state's income was gradually declining as the farmers were caught in the wheat-paddy rotation trap," Badal said while divulging the farm diversification plans in the state.
He said that efforts were afoot to implement this model in Punjab urban areas like Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala and Bathinda.
The veteran Akali leader appealed for the need to adopt world's best practices of wholesale market management for the marketing of fruits and vegetables in the state to ensure remunerative returns to the farmers, especially the small and marginal ones.
Badal was addressing the international conference on 'Wholesale Markets: Global Opportunities and Innovations' organised by the Punjab State Agricultural Marketing Board here.
He suggested formulation of a common consensus group of wholesale market investors, developers, managers, operators and administrators to extend mutual cooperation besides developing marketing strategies to ensure maximum profitability of the fruits and vegetables growers through a well-knit wholesale marketing network.
The chief minister said that the cooperative system was the best option to facilitate the inter-state marketing of fruits and vegetables from Punjab in about 50 major cities across the country having big markets, with each city having a population of over one million.
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"This system provided better price to small producers by eliminating middlemen and reducing the transport cost," he said.
"There is a need to replicate the model of the father of White Revolution, late Verghese Kurien, who played an exemplary role in making India the world's largest milk producer through successful cooperative marketing network. The Verghese model should now be followed in other areas such as marketing of fruits and vegetables," he said. More