150 villages in Punjab to adopt
green farming The government will launch Integrated Pest
Management project to encourage farmers
to minimise use of pesticides and chemical
fertilisers Published on 07/13/2010 - 07:41:23 AM
By Hemant Singh Chandigarh:


After recent findings of presence of high level of uranium and other harmful
chemicals in the ground water, the Agriculture
Department has decided to promote green
farming in the state. For this,the department is going to implement
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) project in
150 villages of Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Tarn
Taran, encouraging farmers to say no to
chemicals. Under the ISM project, the farmers will be
trained in various aspects of pest management
without use of chemicals. They will also be
taught about the seed treatment and benefits of
green manures. For this purpose, village youth
will be trained to disseminate information among the farmers about the project. “We all are seeing the harmful effects of the excessive use of pesticides. Environmental
pollution is on the rise. The IPM project has
been conceived keeping in mind that farmers
of the region are given to the habit of excessive
use of fertilisers whether required or not,” Chief Agriculture Officer PS Sandhu said. “It is a vicious cycle; the more you use the chemicals to kill pesticides the more the plants
become prone to pests. Being unaware of this
fact, farmers keep on using more and more
pesticides on plants, making them succulent
and vulnerable. Ultimately, the result is
needless expenditure on harmful chemicals and rise in environmental pollution,” Sandhu added. Under the project, which is being supported by
the Punjab Agriculture University, insect
surveillance committee has been formed to
formulate plan to protect crops from harmful
insects without use of chemicals and
encourage farmers to go for seed treatment at an early stage. “The ISM will reduce seed diseases by 70 per cent. You can well imagine if 150 villages
don’t find a need to use pesticides how much we will be doing service to the environment. In
addition, we will encourage them to grow
crops that replenish the soil and only use
green manures,"sandhu"