Crop Diversification Fails but Millet is a Silver Lining

The Panjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), in a status report submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said the state has struggled and failed to meet its crop diversification targets for three straight years. Against targets of producing 3.57 million tonnes (MT) of diversified crops in 2021-22 and 4.57 MT in 2022-23, Panjab produced none. Going by the past record, the state government is expecting no change in 2023-24. Crop diversification is a crucial component of crop residue management to bring down stubble burning issues. The real incentive for crop diversification is Minimum Support Price and assured procurement of farm produce. Until that is provided, Panjab will be stuck in the wheat-paddy cycle. Only cotton crops ensure competitive financial returns to farmers, but last year the pink bollworm disease affected the crop. The irony is that devastation due to pink bollworm in the 1990s was the reason Panjab farmers moved to BT Cotton, but the disease is still affecting them. However, there is a silver lining, though perhaps not big enough to make it in official statistics. The Indian government declared 2023 the Year of Millet. In Panjab, in the early 1950s, over 11,000 hectares were under millet cultivation, as opposed to approximately 1,000 hectares now. The farmers who are resurrecting millet farming, experimenting with all nine varieties of millet, are reporting financial success. The reason being many of them have their own processing plants, a critical link to raising prices in the market. These farmers are retracing their steps to a pre-Green Revolution Panjab.