Chandigarh, Jul 15 (PTI) The Punjab government on Friday said it has sought a financial package from the Centre to bail state farmers out of the debt trap, curb stubble burning and promote crop diversification.

Punjab agriculture minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal demanded a financial package from Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar, according to a state government statement.

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According to the statement, Dhaliwal met Tomar at a national conference of agriculture and horticulture ministers of the states in Bengaluru and handed over a letter of demand.

Dhaliwal handed over a letter to Tomar "to impress upon the Union government to take the farmers of the state out of the debt trap, wheat-paddy cycle and promote crop diversification, besides fruit and vegetable farming", the statement said.

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There is a "requirement of financial support for loan waiver, crop diversification, curbing stubble burning and for modern tools", it said citing the letter.

Dhaliwal also demanded a financial package for farmers living in border areas and funds for saving water and using modern tools to protect crops against pest attacks.

The state demanded the opening of export of agricultural and horticultural products to the Middle East so as to expand the income of farmers in Punjab.

Opening trade of agricultural and horticultural products with Pakistan, Iran and Middle East will greatly help state's economy, wrote Dhaliwal.

As Punjab is a border state, Pakistan is always on a look out for vulnerabilities of the large farming population of the state to further weaken it by promoting drugs and militancy, said the official statement quoting the letter.

The letter further said that farmers of the 14,000 acres in the 150-feet wide 425 kilometres long belt across the fence along the international border should be compensated for the adverse conditions imposed on them. They can work only 10 am to 4pm and can't grow crops higher than 3 feet. Therefore, they should be compensated with Rs 15,000 per acre per year, said Dhaliwal.

The government of India should set up an adequate corpus to help the farmer in the state. "The corpus should have two components - one to handhold the farmer to come out of wheat-paddy cycle and second to upgrade the level of research in Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana," Dhaliwal wrote.

Also, a farmer needs to be given Rs 2,500 per acre to enable him to incorporate the stubble mechanically with farm equipment. "For 75 lakh acre under paddy, the Centre is requested to give Rs 1,125 crore annually for the purpose to the state," the minister said.

For modern tools, a fund of at least Rs 300 crore per year over the next decade will help bring about the change, he said.

To promote growing of fruit and vegetables, farmers need a cold chain of warehouses and trucks/vehicles.

"Rs 1,000 crore corpus, to begin with, will go a long way to help state diversify," he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)