January 13, 2020.

Topic: Agricultural diversification

A farmer named Paramjeet Singh has blazed the trail in the farming sector by cultivating strawberries and earning a good income out of them.
He started strawberry cultivation as a pilot initiative on one acre of land.
He has claimed to have gained more than ₹3 lakhs of profit from one acre of crop.
This profit margin can be further increased if proper food processing facilities can be arranged.

The Strawberry crop is sown in October.
Its plucking starts in mid – January and goes till mid-may.
Strawberries are rich in Niacin, Potassium, Magnesium, Vitamin C etc.( They are a rich source of micronutrients).

They need 8 to 12 hours of sunlight for around 10 days.
Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani in Maharashtra account for a great chunk of Strawberry production.
In big cities such as Jalandhar and Chandigarh, they are in high demand.
Also, in high-end hotels, they are supplied.
Other exotic fruits such as Dragonfruit and Avocado also have a great scope as far as Agricultural diversification in Punjab is concerned.

(Source:- The Tribune)

Topic: Animal Husbandry.

Artificial insemination is a part of Punjab’s breed improvement program.
The prices have been slashed up to 80%.
Due to inflated prices, the cattle breeding program had taken backseat last year.
As per the statistics, 8 to 10% drop could be seen in the artificial insemination cases both in cows and buffaloes. ( Comparing 2018 – 19 with 2017-18).
The Punjab Livestock Development department Board sells the semen straws to the farmers.
The semen straw is sold for ₹150 to the Punjab farmers even though it’s cost outside the state is ₹15.
Also, the state quacks are making a huge amount of money by selling cheap semen straws.
So, this is a welcome step. An integrated livestock mission could be started where the semen, health, disease control, vaccination of bovine, fodder etc activities are managed in an integrated way.

(Source:- The Tribune)