Punjab government forms task force to address farming related issues

CHANDIGARH: Punjab government today said it has set up a task force under chairmanship of noted farm scientist G S Kalkat to address various agricultural issues in the state, including farmer suicides.

A spokesperson of Punjab Agriculture Department said maiden meeting of the task force will be held in the first week of July.

The task force will address various problems like rising number of farmer suicides, increasing input costs, falling water table, increasing use of chemicals to maintain production level, saturation in productivity, attendant environmental issues and several other reasons, he said.

Kalkat, who is also a Chairman of Punjab State Farmers' Commission, will head a high-level panel of senior IAS officers, progressive farmers, agricultural experts, sociologists, to prepare a draft to restructure the state's agriculture.

He said NITI Aayog had directed the state to set up a task force for preparing a detailed note on the agriculture sector.

Punjab Government has nominated five progressive farmers from the state in the task force namely - Kuldeep Singh Brar from Muktsar, Kulwant Singh from Hoshiarpur, Ajay Jakhar from Abohar, Vikram Ahuja from Fazilka and Sandeep Randhawa from Batala.