To bail out peasantry from the current "agrarian crisis" by promoting allied farming activities in the state, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today announced cash-credit limit for fish farmers.
The scheme is on the pattern of one given by cooperative banks to agriculturists.
Presiding over a series of meetings with the progressive dairy farmers, piggery, goatry and fishery beneficiaries here, Badal said that it is the need of the hour to promote allied farming sector in the state by extending loans to them.
The CM said that the state has a huge potential of fresh water fisheries, especially in southern districts, but it still remains untapped and hoped that this incentive would certainly help the state to script a new chapter to give much needed impetus for its ambitious programme of agriculture diversification.
He added that Punjab has the highest fish productivity in the country as it produces 1.14 lakh tonnes of fish from capture and culture fisheries.
Badal, according to an official release here, further said that this fish productivity could be enhanced more with such incentives, thereby supplementing the income of farmers.
He also said that the state government would explore the possibility of setting fish markets in every big city of the state.
Expressing solidarity with the farmers of the state who are facing "acute agrarian crisis due to the natural disasters since last few years", Badal asked the Animal Husbandry department to expedite the process of setting up single window system to promote allied farming activities in the state to supplement the income of farmers on one hand and boost the crop diversification programme of the state government on the other.
