Future Strategies for Agricultural Development in Punjab

摘要

THE Punjab agriculture is a success story which has few parallels in the world agriculture. This has been possible due to the development of high-yielding varieties, complementary production technologies, and management systems by the Punjab Agricultural University and dissemination of these technologies by various agencies including the PAU. The adoption of improved technologies has been prompted pv the favourable governmental policies, such as in-put supply services, farm credit facilities, marketinfrastructure and services, feeder-roads, etc. In comparison to 1960-61, wheat, rice and cotton production in the state during 1994-95 was higher by about 8, 34 and 3 times respectively. Besides production, productivity has also increased, that is from1009 to 3388 kg/ha in the case of wheat, from 1244 to 4088 kg/ha in rice and from 269 to 499 kg/ha in cotton. Punjab produces 22 per cent of wheat, 9 per cent of rice and 24 per cent of cotton of the total national produce though the state has only 1.5 per cent geographical area of the country. The state has been contributing about 40 to 50 per cent of rice and 60 to 70 per cent of wheat to the central pool for the last two decades and, therefore, is rightly called 'Granary of India'.