Punjab has witnessed at least a 16 per cent increase in the area under the Basmati cultivation this Kharif season, Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said here on Friday.
He said the Amritsar district tops with 1.35 lakh hectares area sown under this long-grain rice.
The campaign to promote crop diversification in the state — launched by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann-led government — has got a major push after Punjab witnessed at least a 16 per cent increase in area under Basmati cultivation, he added.
During this Kharif Season, Basmati has been sown in 5.74 lakh hectares till August 14, out of the total paddy area of 31.88 lakh hectares.
“During the Kharif Season 2022-23, the total area sown under paddy was 31.68 lakh hectares, out of which area under Basmati was 4.95 lakh hectares,” he said.
Khudian said Amritsar, followed by Muktsar, Fazilka and Tarn Taran registered maximum cultivation of Basmati.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: Aug 18 2023 | 9:30 PM IST
